Ana Marie Cox

Ana Marie Cox
Ana Marie Cox on 8 May 2007
Born	(1972-09-23) 23 September 1972 (age 39) San Juan, Puerto Rico
Nationality	US
Education	University of Chicago
Occupation	Correspondent
Employer	GQ
Known for	The political blog Wonkette
Spouse	Chris Lehmann (divorced)

Ana Marie Cox (born 23 September 1972) is an American author and blogger. The founding editor of the political blog Wonkette, she is currently the Washington correspondent for GQ and is lead blogger on US politics for The Guardian.^[1] She previously worked at Air America Media.^[2]

Early life

Cox was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She attended high school at Lincoln Southeast High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she wrote for the school's newspaper, The Clarion. She graduated from the University of Chicago with an AB in History in 1994. She began graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was studying American history, but left school and instead became an editorial assistant at the publishing company Alfred A. Knopf.^[3]

Career

Cox was an editor of the progressive online magazine Bad Subjects. Later, she was an executive editor of Suck.com, where she wrote under the pen name 'Ann O'Tate'^[4] (wordplay on annotate).

In 2004, Cox became the founding editor of political blog Wonkette. Under her tenure, Wonkette was a sportive commentary on Capitol Hill 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, also known as "Washingtonienne", a staff assistant to Senator Mike DeWine (R.-Ohio), who accepted money from a George W. Bush administration official and others in exchange for sexual favors. On January 5, 2006, she officially announced her retirement as the blog's editor and her imminent transition to "Wonkette Emerita".

Her novel Dog Days,^[5] a satire of Washington D.C. life for which she was reportedly paid $250,000, was published on January 6, 2006. On July 27, 2006 she was named the Washington editor of Time.com, where she also writes The Ana Log. She is also under a mid-six-figures contract with Penguin to write a nonfiction book.^[6]

On 12 April 2007 Cox claimed on Time magazine's website that she agreed to appear on the Don Imus radio show despite the show's 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."^[7] Cox announced on 5 December 2008 that she would no longer be contributing to the Time magazine's Swampland blog.^[8]

On 19 January 2009 she debuted on Air America Media as their first Washington DC based national correspondent.^[9] She was a frequent guest on The Rachel Maddow Show. She also guest hosted the show in Maddow's absence on 4 September 2009. In 2009 Cox also became a contributing editor for Playboy.^[1]

On the 17 February 2010 episode of ABC's 'Top Line' webcast it was announced Cox had become the Washington correspondent for GQ magazine. She currently does not work at GQ, but instead has been hired as a blogger for the Guardian's website, where she has been blogging since September 26, 2011.^[10]

Personal life

Cox was married to Chris Lehmann, formerly of The Washington Post, New York, and Congressional Quarterly. They divorced sometime in 2011.^[11] In 2009 on an Amtrak train from New York to Washington Cox had a severe allergic reaction after eating a lentil salad. Fox News host Greta Van Susteren saw her choking and came to her aid with Benadryl, after which Cox recovered. Cox later personally thanked Greta for saving her life.^[12]

Notes

External links

• Ana Marie Cox on Twitter
• Column archive at The Guardian
• Column archive at Mother Jones
• Video discussions/debates videos featuring Cox on Bloggingheads.tv
• Wonkette In The Flesh: An Evening with Ana Marie Cox, transcript of interview at Columbia Journalism School, October 2004
• South by Southwest Interactive audio interview, March 2005
• Cox's Wonkette post announcing her "ascension to Wonkette Emeritus"
• Washington Post article on Cox's retirement from Wonkette
• NYTimes.com Review of Dog Days