Monica Hesse

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Monica Hesse
Monica hesse 5212933.jpg
Hesse in 2016
OccupationJournalist, novelist
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Bryn Mawr College (BA)
Johns Hopkins University (MA)
GenresNon-fiction, young adult fiction
Website
www.monicahesse.com

Monica Hesse (born 1981or1982) [1] is an American journalist and author. She is the gender columnist for The Washington Post and a 2023 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Contents

Early life and education

Hesse is from Normal, Illinois, where her father, Douglas D. Hesse, taught writing at Illinois State University. Her mother is a therapist. [1]

She attended Bryn Mawr College, where she wrote a column for The Bi-College News and majored in English. She graduated in 2003. [2] In 2009, she earned a master's degree in nonfiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. [3] [4]

Career

During Hesse's junior year of college, she interned at AARP: The Magazine , an experience that led to a full-time job at the publication after she graduated. She moved to Washington, D.C. and began taking freelance assignments for The Washington Post and the tabloid On Tap. [1]

In 2007, Hesse interned for the Post's Style section, later becoming a permanent feature writer. [5] [4] In 2018, she was appointed the newspaper's first ever gender columnist. [5]

In January 2025, the Post scrapped the paper's "gender columnist" role and reassigned Hesse from the Style/"Power" section to the Opinions section after Post editors killed an article recently submitted by her. [6] . This change was confirmed by Hesse herself in an article she wrote in March of 2025. [7] .

In late September or early October 2025, Hesse was again reassigned, this time as "a screens critic for the Style section", according to her October 6 Post article and confirmed by her updated Post profile page,

Hesse is the author of several novels, with a focus on the World War II era. [2] Her 2017 book American Fire reports on a string of arsons in Accomack County, Virginia. [3]

Awards

Hesse is the recipient of the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery for her book Girl in the Blue Coat [8] and the Society for Feature Journalism's Narrative Storytelling award. [9] She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, "for columns that convey the anger and dread that many Americans felt about losing their right to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade ." [10]

Personal life

Hesse lives in University Park, Maryland with her family. [10] [11]

Works

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jaffe, Harry (June 2, 2008). "Hesse's Got Style". Washingtonian. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "Monica Hesse '03 Publishes New Book". Bryn Mawr College. January 11, 2022. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  3. 1 2 McCabe, Bret (September 1, 2017). "Talking with Monica Hesse". Johns Hopkins Magazine. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Monica Hesse". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  5. 1 2 Levine, Jon (May 23, 2018). "Washington Post Names Monica Hesse as First 'Gender Columnist'". TheWrap. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Washington Post editors 'killed' piece from its 'gender columnist,' plan to scrap role entirely" . Retrieved September 29, 2025.
  7. ↑ "All the splinters we cannot see" . Retrieved September 29, 2025.
  8. ↑ "23 Outstanding Books That Won Awards in 2017" . Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  9. ↑ "Monica Hesse and 'American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land". niemanstoryboard.org. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  10. 1 2 "Finalist: Monica Hesse of The Washington Post". The Pulitzer Prize. 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  11. 1 2 Beckwith, Alison (April 9, 2020). "University Park Author Monica Hesse Revisits World War II in Her Latest Book". Hyattsville Wire. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  12. ↑ Kirch, Claire (April 12, 2016). "Q & A with Monica Hesse". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  13. ↑ Memmott, Carol (September 25, 2018). "The tragic timeliness of a novel about a World War II internment camp". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved August 11, 2024.
  14. ↑ Baugher Milas, Lacy. "A Telephone Operator Is Haunted by Her Wartime Past In This Excerpt From The Brightwood Code". Paste Magazine. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
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