Ana Marie Cox
Cox in 2017
Born (1972-09-23) September 23, 1972
San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Education
OccupationSenior political correspondent
Known forPolitical blog Wonkette
Spouses
  • Chris Lehmann
    ​
    (div. 2011)​
  • John W. Ramonas
    ​
    (m. 2015)​

Ana Marie Cox (born September 23, 1972) is an American author, blogger, political columnist, and critic. The founding editor of the political blog Wonkette, she was also the Senior Political Correspondent for MTV News, and conducted the "Talk" interviews featured in The New York Times Magazine from 2015 to 2017.[1][2]

In 2010, Cox held the position of Washington correspondent for GQ. Cox has been a contributor for The Daily Beast since 2009.[3] She previously worked at Air America Media.[4] She was a lead blogger on U.S. politics for The Guardian,[5] until August 2014,[6] and an editor at Mother Jones.[1]

Early life

Cox was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her family is from Texas and is of Scots-Irish descent.[7][8] She attended 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 a Bachelor of Arts degree 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.[9]

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,[10] a wordplay on annotate.

In 2004, Cox became the founding editor of the 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, Cox officially announced her retirement as the blog's editor and her imminent transition to "Wonkette Emerita."

Cox's novel Dog Days,[11] a satire of Washington, D.C. 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, Christopher Buckley described it as a "brisk, smart, smutty, knowing and very well-written first novel."[12] 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."[13] 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.[14]

Kirkus Reviews adjudged that Cox offers "results that make Primary Colors read like Proust" and concluded, "[R]eaders hoping for some real-life dirt (or at least a salacious facsimile) will be dealt nothing more than lightweight fluff and throwaway farce."[15] In the Los Angeles Times, Diana Wagman wrote, "Dog Days is predictable and, worst of all, mean-spirited. ... [It] is chick lit at its most hackneyed."[16] "It's a novel torn from the day before yesterday's headlines," wrote P.J. O'Rourke in The Washington Post.

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.[17]

According to Human Events, more than a year after its publication the book had sold "a dismal 5,000 copies."[18]

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."[19] Cox announced on December 5, 2008, that she would no longer be contributing to Time magazine's Swampland blog.[20]

On January 19, 2009, Cox debuted on Air America Media as their first Washington-based national correspondent.[21] 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.[22]

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.[23]

On September 26, 2012, book publisher Penguin Group 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.[24]

Cox has been a contributor to The Daily Beast since 2009.[3]

In February 2017, Cox launched the podcast With Friends Like These[25] 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, where she talked about depression and being a survivor of suicide.[26] In 2019, Cox took over as host of the podcast The Churn, SyFy's recap and commentary show on The Expanse.[27] In 2020, she and co-host Daniel W. Drezner relaunched the podcast independently as Space the Nation.[28]

Personal life

Cox was married to Chris Lehmann, formerly of The Washington Post, New York, and Congressional Quarterly. They divorced in 2011.[29]

On October 11, 2014, Cox announced on Twitter that she was engaged to Minneapolis risk manager[30] John Ramonas.[31] She married Ramonas on New Year's Day 2015 in Vermont.[32] Cox now resides in Austin, Texas and is divorcing Ramonas.[1] On February 28, 2015, Cox announced in an article in the Daily Beast that she is a Christian.[33] On December 27, 2016, in honor of Carrie Fisher's death, Cox confirmed via Twitter that she has bipolar disorder.[34] In a 2017 Sports Illustrated article, Cox revealed she has been sober since 2011.[35]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About — Ana Marie Cox". Anamariecox.com. Archived from the original on April 16, 2019. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  2. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (October 19, 2017). "For Ana Marie Cox, Goodbyes Can Be Awkward". The New York Times.
  3. 1 2 "Ana Marie Cox". The Daily Beast. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ Shea, Danny (February 11, 2010). "Ana Marie Cox Joins GQ". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on February 16, 2010. Retrieved March 4, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Ana Marie Cox: my new blog for the Guardian, September 26, 2011". The Guardian. London. September 26, 2011.
  6. ↑ "Ana Marie Cox". The Guardian. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  7. ↑ Ana Marie Cox [@anamariecox] (August 19, 2016). "Both sides of my family are from Texas :)" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. ↑ Ana Marie Cox [@anamariecox] (October 29, 2015). "My drunken family reunions, full of Scotch-Irish Texans lit on tequila, were more civilized, sensical, and less full of lies than this" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. ↑ Ravo, Nick (September 24, 1995). "INVESTING IT; Time on Their Side, Saving on Their Minds". The New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2009.
  10. ↑ "contributors". Suck.com. Archived from the original on December 31, 2010. Retrieved October 29, 2010.
  11. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (2006). Dog Days. New York City: Riverhead Books. ISBN 978-1-59448-901-3. LCCN 2005054652. OCLC 61758736.
  12. ↑ CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY (January 8, 2006). "'Dog Days,' by Ana Marie Cox". The New York Times. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  13. ↑ JANET MASLIN (January 3, 2006). "A Blogger Creates a Blogger for a Trip Back to 2004". The New York Times. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  14. ↑ Young, Toby (January 20, 2006). "Wonkette's shallow roman à clef". Slate.com. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  15. ↑
  16. ↑ "Politics as usual". Articles.latimes.com. January 8, 2006. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  17. ↑ "What a Tangled Web We Weave". Washingtonpost.com. January 8, 2006. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Foulmouthed 'Wonkette' Doesn't Fool Me". Human Events. April 17, 2007. Archived from the original on September 29, 2015. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  19. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (April 12, 2007). "An Imus Guest Says No More". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
  20. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (December 5, 2008). "So Long, Farewell, However You Spell Auf Wiedersehn". Time.com.
  21. ↑ "Former 'Wonkette' Cox Joins Air America 01/14/2009". Mediapost.com. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  22. ↑ "'The Rachel Maddow Show' for Thursday, May 21 - Rachel Maddow show- NBCNews.com". NBC News. May 26, 2009. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Guardian.com: Ana Marie Cox". The Guardian. London. March 1, 2012.
  24. ↑ Gregorian, Dareh. Book-publisher Penguin Group files lawsuits against authors who skipped deadlines, New York Post, September 27, 2012.
  25. ↑ "With Friends Like These Archives".
  26. ↑ "Ana Marie Cox is Not Really Edited Much at All".
  27. ↑ "The Churn: The Expanse Seasons 1-3 recaps %7C SYFY WIRE". December 13, 2019.
  28. ↑ "Space the Nation".
  29. ↑ Lehmann, Chris [@lehmannchris] (January 12, 2012). "@chrislehmann @drjteacher Actually, I'm no longer married to Ana Marie Cox, so we'll have to work out some different mnemonic..." (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 11, 2016 – via Twitter.
  30. ↑ "John W. Ramonas - LinkedIn". linkedin.com. November 30, 2014. Archived from the original on November 30, 2014.
  31. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie [@anamariecox] (October 11, 2014). "I am getting married to a weekend house DJ and WHAT YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING?" (Tweet). Retrieved November 12, 2016 – via Twitter.
  32. ↑ Mike, Allen (January 5, 2015). "Playbook". Politico.com. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  33. ↑ Ana Marie Cox (February 28, 2015). "Why I'm Coming Out as a Christian". The Daily Beast. Retrieved November 12, 2016.
  34. ↑ Scott Collins (December 27, 2016). "How Ana Marie Cox and Twitter 'Outed' Mental Illness With #InHonorOfCarrie". The Wrap. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  35. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (December 21, 2017). "Embracing the Frog: My Winding Journey to Becoming a TCU Diehard". Sports Illustrated.
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