Ana Marie Cox (born September 23, 1972) is a liberal American author, blogger, political columnist, and critic. The founding editor of the political
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
''
Wonkette'', she was also the Senior Political Correspondent for
MTV News
MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...
, and conducted the "Talk" interviews featured in ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazi ...
'' from 2015 to 2017.
In 2010, Cox held the position of Washington correspondent for ''
GQ''. Cox has been a contributor for
The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...
since 2009.
She previously worked at
Air America Media. She was a lead blogger on U.S. politics for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'',
until August 2014, and an editor at ''
Mother Jones''.
Early life
Cox was born in
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan ( , ; Spanish for "Saint John the Baptist, John") is the capital city and most populous Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in the Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the ...
. Her family is from Texas and is of
Scots-Irish descent. She attended
Lincoln Southeast High School in
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...
, where she wrote for the school's newspaper, ''The Clarion''. She graduated from the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1994. She began graduate school at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, where she was studying American history, but left school, and instead became an editorial assistant at the publishing company
Alfred A. Knopf.
Career
Cox was an editor of the progressive online magazine ''
Bad Subjects
''Bad Subjects'' (more formally ''Bad Subjects: Political Education For Everyday Life'' and sometimes ''The Bad Subjects Collective'') was a research collaborative that operated generally out of California as part of the open access electronic pub ...
''. Later, she was an executive editor of
Suck.com, where she wrote under the
pen name
A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...
Ann O'Tate, a wordplay on ''
annotate''.
In 2004, Cox became the founding editor of the political
blog
A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...
''
Wonkette''. Under her tenure, Wonkette was a sportive commentary on
Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill is a neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood in Washington, D.C., located in both the Northeast, Washington, D.C., Northeast and Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast quadrants. It is bounded by 14th Street SE & NE, F S ...
Washington politics, as well as more serious matters of politics and policy. Cox and Wonkette gained notoriety in the political world for publicizing the story of
Jessica Cutler
Jessica Louise Cutler (born May 18, 1978) is an American blogger, author, and former United States Congress, congressional staff assistant who was fired for detailing her active sexual life, including receiving money for having sex (prostitutio ...
, also known as "Washingtonienne," a staff assistant to
Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
Mike DeWine
Richard Michael DeWine ( ; born January 5, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 70th List of governors of Ohio, governor of Ohio since 2019. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served a ...
(
R-
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
) who accepted money from a
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
administration official and others in exchange for sexual favors. On January 5, 2006, Cox officially announced her retirement as the blog's editor and her imminent transition to "Wonkette Emerita."
Cox's novel ''Dog Days'',
a satire of
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
life for which she was reportedly paid $250,000, was published on January 6, 2006. The book received generally negative reviews. In ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'',
Christopher Buckley described it as a "brisk, smart, smutty, knowing and very well-written first novel." In the ''Times'' as well,
Janet Maslin wrote that despite Cox's "satirical expertise," the novel is replete with "stock characters" and "manages to be doubly conventional: it follows both an old-fashioned love-betrayal-redemption arc and the newer, bitchier nanny-Prada chick-lit motif." Writing in
Slate.com,
Toby Young found the novel "shallow." He continued,
The problem is, once the plot is set in motion, it never really takes flight. ''Dog Days'' has the makings of an entertaining comic novel, but Cox hasn't bothered to master the rudiments of the genre. I kept waiting for the different elements to come to a boil, but if anything, Cox turns down the heat as the story continues.
''
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...
'' adjudged that Cox offers "results that make ''
Primary Colors'' read like Proust" and concluded, "
aders hoping for some real-life dirt (or at least a salacious facsimile) will be dealt nothing more than lightweight fluff and throwaway farce." In the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'', Diana Wagman wrote, "''Dog Days'' is predictable and, worst of all, mean-spirited. ...
tis chick lit at its most hackneyed." "It's a novel torn from the day before yesterday's headlines," wrote
P.J. O'Rourke in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
''.
I won't spoil the plot. There isn't one. ... ''Dog Days'' is devoid of ideas or even references to ideas ... The people in ''Dog Days'' spend so much energy on instant-messaging, text-messaging, message-forwarding and such that it's no wonder they are too exhausted to have anything to say.
According to''
Human Events'', more than a year after its publication the book had sold "a dismal 5,000 copies."
On July 27, 2006, Cox was named the Washington editor of
Time.com, where she also wrote ''The Ana Log''.
On April 12, 2007, Cox claimed on ''Time'' magazine's website that she agreed to appear on the
Don Imus radio show despite its history of racially and sexually charged content because she wanted to be considered part of the media elite. Cox wrote: "I'm embarrassed to admit that it took Imus' saying something so devastatingly crass to make me realize that there just was no reason beyond ego to play along. I did the show almost solely to earn my media-elite merit badge."
Cox announced on December 5, 2008, that she would no longer be contributing to ''Time'' magazine's Swampland blog.
On January 19, 2009, Cox debuted on
Air America Media as their first Washington-based national correspondent. She was a frequent guest on ''
The Rachel Maddow Show'', and guest-hosted the show in Maddow's absence on September 4, 2009. In 2009, Cox also became a contributing editor for ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...
''.
The February 17, 2010 episode of ABC's "Top Line" webcast announced that Cox had become the Washington correspondent for ''GQ'' magazine. Since September 26, 2011, she has worked as a blogger for ''The Guardian''.
On September 26, 2012, book publisher
Penguin Group
Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...
sued Cox for the return of an $81,250 advance and $50,000 in interest, payment for a humorous book she agreed in 2006 to produce and never provided to the publisher. Penguin canceled the book in 2007 when Cox did not forward a manuscript.
Cox has been a contributor to
The Daily Beast
''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc.
It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...
since 2009.
In February 2017, Cox launched the podcast ''With Friends Like These'' as part of the
Crooked Media brand. She was also a guest of
John Moe on his podcast ''The Hilarious World of Depression'' at
American Public Media
American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and o ...
, where she talked about depression and being a survivor of “a couple” suicide attempts.
In 2019, Cox took over as host of the podcast ''The Churn,''
SyFy's recap and commentary show on ''
The Expanse.'' In 2020, she and co-host
Daniel W. Drezner relaunched the podcast independently as ''Space the Nation.''
Personal life
Cox was married to Chris Lehmann, formerly of ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', ''
New York'', and ''
Congressional Quarterly
''Congressional Quarterly'', or ''CQ'', is an American publication that is part of the privately owned publishing company CQ Roll Call, which covers the United States Congress. ''CQ'' was formerly acquired by the U.K.-based Economist Group and ...
''. They divorced in 2011.
On October 11, 2014, Cox announced on Twitter that she was engaged to Minneapolis risk manager John Ramonas. She married Ramonas on New Year's Day 2015 in Vermont.
On February 28, 2015, Cox announced in an article in the
Daily Beast that she is a
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
.
On December 27, 2016, in honor of
Carrie Fisher
Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the Star Wars original trilogy, original ''Star Wars'' films (1977–1983) and reprised the role in'' Star Wars: The F ...
's death, Cox confirmed via
Twitter
Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
that she has bipolar disorder.
In a 2017 ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' article, Cox revealed she has been sober since 2011.
Cox has written that she is a “survivor of sexual assault”.
She has said that she is a survivor of “a couple” suicide attempts.
References
External links
Column archiveat ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
''
Column archiveat ''
Mother Jones''
*
Video discussions/debates videos featuring Coxon
Bloggingheads.tv
Wonkette In The Flesh: An Evening with Ana Marie Cox transcript of interview at Columbia Journalism School, October 2004
audio interview, March 2005
Cox's ''Wonkette'' post announcing her "ascension to Wonkette Emeritus"*
ttps://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/books/03masl.html?8hpib NYTimes.com Review of ''Dog Days''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, Ana Marie
1972 births
21st-century American novelists
21st-century American women writers
Air America (radio network)
American women bloggers
American bloggers
American humorists
American online publication editors
American political commentators
American political writers
American radio personalities
American gossip columnists
American women columnists
Living people
Writers from San Juan, Puerto Rico
People with bipolar disorder
The Guardian journalists
University of Chicago alumni
American women humorists
American women novelists
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American women podcasters
American political podcasters
American women non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
Mental health activists