 | This article may rely excessively on sources too closely associated with the subject , potentially preventing the article from being verifiable and neutral.(May 2022) |
Molly Jong-Fast | |
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 Jong-Fast in 2023 | |
| Born | August 19, 1978 Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Education | Bennington College (MFA) |
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| Spouse | Matthew Greenfield (m. 2003) |
| Children | 3 |
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Molly Jong-Fast (born August 19, 1978 [1] ) is an American journalist, novelist, and political commentator. [2]
Jong-Fast was born on August 19, 1978 [1] in Stamford, Connecticut, [3] to novelist Erica Jong and author Jonathan Fast. [4] [5] She is the granddaughter of writer Howard Fast. [4] Her parents divorced during her childhood, and she was raised an only child [6] in Manhattan. [7] by a nanny whom Jong-Fast says essentially raised her as Catholic. [8] Her family is Jewish. [9]
Jong-Fast struggled with substance abuse as a teenager, spending a month in a drug rehabilitation facility at age 19. [10] She graduated from the Riverdale Country School and later attended Wesleyan University, Barnard College, and New York University, but did not graduate. [11] She obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bennington College in 2004. [4]
Jong-Fast is the author of two novels, Normal Girl [12] and The Social Climber's Handbook, and three memoirs, Girl [Maladjusted], The Sex Doctors in the Basement, [13] [14] and How to Lose Your Mother. [15]
After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Jong-Fast began focusing her writing on politics, [16] becoming a prominent left-wing political commentator during the first presidency of Donald Trump. [10] She became a regular contributor to The Forward, [17] The Bulwark , [18] Playboy , [19] Glamour , [20] and Vogue. [21]
In December 2019, Jong-Fast became an editor-at-large at The Daily Beast , hosting the podcast The New Abnormal. [22] In November 2021, she became a contributing writer at The Atlantic , [23] and the writer of its Wait, What? newsletter. [24] In 2022, she joined Vanity Fair as a special correspondent and began hosting the Fast Politics iHeart Media podcast. In January 2024, she joined MSNBC as a political analyst. [25]
In 2025, Viking Books published Jong-Fast's third memoir, How to Lose Your Mother, which became a New York Times Bestseller within three weeks. [26] A reviewer for The New York Times describes the book as "read[ing] like a score-settling marathon at times, but also like a loving elegy". [10] Novelist Martha McPhee wrote for The Washington Post that How to Lose Your Mother was a "transformative work of alchemy" with "lines so good you won't just want to underline them, you will want to cut them out to share". [2] Oprah Magazine called How to Lose Your Mother "hilarious and heartbreaking" and "the story of a singular mother-daughter relationship that will resonate with anyone who grew up playing second fiddle to a parent’s passions." [27]
In 2003, Jong-Fast married CUNY professor Matthew Adlai Greenfield. [28] [29] [30] They have three children. [31] She has written about her experience with Alcoholics Anonymous. [32]
Jong-Fast is a cousin of Lebanese-American political strategist Peter Daou. [33] As of 2007 [update] , she lives on the Upper East Side of New York City with her family. [7]
I guess I should give you a little family history. We are Jews.
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