Jenna Wortham

Jenna Wortham (born November 4, 1982)[1] is an American journalist. She works as a culture writer for The New York Times Magazine.[2] She co-hosts The New York Times podcast Still Processing.

Jenna Wortham
Jenna Wortham speaks at MoMA, 2016
Born (1982-11-04) November 4, 1982
OccupationJournalist
Alma materUniversity of Virginia
Subjects
  • Technology
  • business
  • culture
Website
JennyDeluxe.com

Early life

Wortham grew up in Alexandria, Virginia,[3] then studied medical anthropology at the University of Virginia. She graduated in 2004.[4]

Career

Journalism

After college, Wortham moved to San Francisco, where she interned for San Francisco Magazine and Girlfriend Magazine and wrote for SFist,[5] eventually becoming a technology and culture reporter for Wired. She joined The New York Times in 2008, working as a technology and business reporter, then moved to the Times Magazine in 2014;[6] Politico said the hire "gives the magazine additional editorial firepower and cachet," citing Wortham's "huge following" including more than 530,000 Twitter followers as of December 2014.[7]

Wortham's work has also appeared in Matter, The Awl, Bust, The Hairpin, Vogue, The Morning News, and The Fader among other publications. Pi.co calls her "one of those rare writers who is able to explain the shapeshifting culture of the younger and newer internet."[5] In 2012, Wortham was included in the Root 100 list.[8] The Fader named Wortham's piece on The Shade Room "Instagram's TMZ" to its list of "The Best Culture Writing of 2015."[9]

In addition to praise for her technology reporting, Wortham has been recognized for her commentary on a range of cultural topics. At The Village Voice, Mallika Rao described Wortham as "skirt[ing] the edges of tech, culture, and identity in her writing — carving out her own corner of the internet wherein she is a rightful star. (A shimmering Lemonade essay prompted a thank-you note from the Queen herself, signed "Love, Beyoncé" and 'grammed by Wortham.)"[10] Other topics in Wortham's writing have included queer identity[11] and race and gender on television.[12][13] At Rookie, Diamond Sharp praised Wortham's "incisive writing, and the generous way she moves within the world. She is, with no hyperbole, one of the most important minds working in media."[14] Wortham's work appears in the anthologies Never Can Say Goodbye: Writers on Their Unshakable Love for New York (2014) and An Experience Definitely Worth Allegedly Having: Travel Stories from The Hairpin (2013).[15]

Books
See also: Black Futures

With Kimberly Drew, Wortham edited a collection entitled Black Futures,[16] published in December 2020[17] by Chris Jackson's One World imprint at Random House.[18]

Wortham is also writing the essay collection, Work of Body, about her "formative experiences as a queer Black person, against the backdrop of technology and the larger history of Black bodies in America". Work of Body will be published by Penguin Press.[19]

Fellowships

In 2017, Wortham was the Zora Neale Hurston Fellow at the first Jack Jones Literary Arts retreat.[20] She was awarded a MacDowell Fellowship at the MacDowell Colony in 2018.[21] In 2020, she and Morris were also named Kelly Writers House Fellows.[22]

Still Processing
Main article: Still Processing

In September 2016, Wortham and New York Times colleague Wesley Morris launched a culture podcast called Still Processing,[23] produced by the Times and podcasting startup Pineapple Street Media.[24] The show debuted to strongly favorable reviews[25][26] and made year-end "best of" lists at The Atlantic,[27] The Huffington Post,[28] and IndieWire.[29] In 2020, the podcast was nominated American Society of Magazine Editors Magazine Award.[30][31]

Other projects

In 2011, Wortham created Girl Crush Zine with Thessaly La Force, a project After Ellen said aimed "to show women embracing their love for other women."[32] Other contributors included fiction writers Jennifer Egan and Emma Straub—with Straub writing about her girl crush on Egan.[33]

In November 2014, Wortham debuted an ongoing project called Everybody Sexts which "collect[s] anecdotes of people’s sexting decisions, accompanied by nudes from said sexting incidents that are then recreated by an array of artists," including Melody Newcomb.[34] Vice Media's technology vertical Motherboard said Wortham's treatment of sexting was "one of the first to transcend hand-wringing or how-to guides, and present the sexual behavior as something worthy of inspiring art."[35]

References
  1. "I'm Nov 4 and this is very much my curse as well". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-11-11.
  2. Johnson, Eric (April 28, 2016). "Meet the New York Times' Jenna Wortham before she reinvents herself again". Re/code Media with Peter Kafka. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  3. Polsky, Sarah (March 1, 2016). "Jenna Wortham". Curbed. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  4. "Notable Alumni". University of Virginia. Retrieved 2016-06-18.
  5. Verhoeve, Wesley. "Jenna Wortham". Pi.co. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  6. Roush, Chris (December 8, 2014). "NYTimes tech writer Wortham joining NYTimes Magazine". Talking Biz News. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  7. Barr, Jeremy (December 8, 2014). "Jenna Worth joining New York Times Magazine". Politico. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  8. "The Root 100 – 2012". The Root. 2012-01-01. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  9. Kameir, Rawiya (December 22, 2015). "The Best Culture Writing Of 2015". The FADER. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  10. Rao, Mallika (15 February 2017). "Tune In to Pineapple Street's Podcasting Revolution". Village Voice. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  11. Ryan, Hugh (July 14, 2016). "Why Everyone Can't Be Queer". Slate. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  12. Holmes, Anna (April 23, 2012). "White "Girls"". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 26, 2012.
  13. Rao, Mallika (April 16, 2016). "Telling a Different Story About Africa". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  14. Sharp, Diamond (September 29, 2016). "Why Can't I Be You: Jenna Wortham". Rookie Magazine. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  15. "Jenna Wortham". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  16. Simpson, Koa Beck, Lorna (March 8, 2017). "These Women in the Arts Don't Take No for an Answer". Vogue. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  17. "Black Futures by Kimberly Drew, Jenna Wortham: 9780399181139 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
  18. Wortham, Jenna; Drew, Kimberly (2019-07-02). The Black Futures Project. One World. ISBN 9780399181153.
  19. "I'm making another book!". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  20. "The Retreat — Jack Jones Literary Arts". 2018-09-15. Archived from the original on 2018-09-15. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  21. "85 Artists Awarded MacDowell Fellowships for Summer Residencies - News". MacDowell Colony. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  22. "Writers House Fellows". 2020-03-20. Archived from the original on 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  23. Bryant, Taylor (September 20, 2016). "Jenna Wortham Is "Still Processing" Her New Podcast". Nylon. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  24. Doctor, Ken (September 6, 2016). "The New York Times gets serious about podcasting". Politico. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  25. Barnes, Tim (12 September 2016). "NYT's Still Processing feels like old media embracing the new". A.V. Club. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  26. Sharp, Diamond (September 29, 2016). "Why Can't I Be You: Jenna Wortham". Rookie. Retrieved 8 October 2016.
  27. McQuade, Eric; Standley, Laura Jane (December 18, 2016). "The 50 Best Podcasts of 2016". The Atlantic. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  28. Capewell, Jillian (21 December 2016). "15 Notable Podcasts Brought To You By 2016". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
  29. Greene, Steve (December 27, 2016). "The 50 Best Podcast Episodes of 2016 | IndieWire". IndieWire. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  30. "THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGAZINE EDITORS ANNOUNCE FINALISTS FOR 2020 NATIONAL MAGAZINE AWARDS". www.asme.media. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  31. "12 Finalists for ASME National Magazine Awards". The New York Times Company. 2020-02-07. Retrieved 2020-06-25.
  32. Gillette, Courtney (26 July 2011). ""Girl Crush Zine" wants to show women embracing their love for other women - AfterEllen". After Ellen. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  33. D'Addario, Daniel (27 July 2011). "The Ladies Who Crush: Girl Crush Lights Up Zine Scene". New York Observer. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  34. "Jenna Wortham's "Everybody Sexts" Project". Artboiled. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  35. Alptraum, Lux (January 21, 2016). "How Sexting Is Influencing Art". Motherboard (Vice). Retrieved 27 July 2016.
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