Katrina vanden Heuvel (/ˈvæn.dɛnˈhj.vəl/ VAN-den-HYOO-vul; born October 7, 1959) is an American editor and publisher. She is the publisher, part-owner, and former editor of the progressive magazine The Nation. She was the magazine's editor from 1995 to 2019, when she was succeeded by D. D. Guttenplan. She has frequently appeared as a commentator on political television programs. Vanden Heuvel is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a US nonprofit think tank. She is a recipient of the Norman Mailer Prize.

Katrina vanden Heuvel
vanden Heuvel in Seattle, 2011
Born (1959-10-07) October 7, 1959 (age 65)
New York City, U.S.
Alma materPrinceton University (A.B.)
Occupations
  • Editor
  • publisher
  • entrepreneur
Years active1978–present
Spouse
(m. 1988; died 2020)
Children1
Parent(s)Jean Stein
William vanden Heuvel
RelativesJules C. Stein
(maternal grandfather)

Early life and education

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Katrina vanden Heuvel was born in New York City, the daughter of Jean Stein, an heiress, best-selling author, and editor of the literary journal Grand Street, and William vanden Heuvel, an attorney, former US ambassador, member of John F. Kennedy's administration, businessman, and author.[1] She has one sister and two step-siblings. Her maternal grandparents were Music Corporation of America founder Jules C. Stein and Doris Babbette Jones (originally Jonas). Through Doris, vanden Heuvel is a distant cousin of actor and comedian George Jessel.[2] Her mother was from a Jewish family[3] and her father was of Dutch and Belgian ancestry.[4]

Vanden Heuvel graduated from the Trinity School in 1977.[5] She graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in politics from Princeton University in 1981 after completing a senior thesis titled "American Victims: A Study of the Anti-Communist Crusade."[6] While at Princeton, she served as an editor and eventually as editor-in-chief of the Nassau Weekly, a school publication, and had an internship at National Lampoon magazine in 1978.[1] She then worked as a production assistant at ABC for two years.[1]

Career

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At The Nation

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By the end of her junior year, vanden Heuvel had already worked for nine months as an intern at The Nation, after taking the "Politics and the Press" course taught by Blair Clark, the magazine's editor from 1976 to 1978, returning to the magazine in 1984 to serve as the foreign affairs assistant editor.[2]

In 1989, vanden Heuvel was promoted to The Nation's editor-at-large position, responsible for its coverage of the USSR.[citation needed] In 1995, vanden Heuvel was named chief editor of The Nation.[7]

By 1995, The Nation was losing $500,000 a year, and its editor Victor Navasky brought vanden Heuvel together with other investors in a for-profit partnership to buy the magazine from investment banker Arthur L. Carter.[citation needed] The investors included vanden Heuvel, Paul Newman, E. L. Doctorow, Alan Sagner (former Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman), Peter Norton (Norton Utilities software creator) and others.[7]

In a 2005 interview with Theodore Hamm in The Brooklyn Rail, vanden Heuvel described the contents of The Nation and its larger role in news media:

"Ideas, policy, activism, reporting, investigative reporting, as well as cultural pieces, reviews, writing. I hope people understand that about a third of this magazine, every week, is a very well edited, fascinating, cultural section, featuring reviews to people's of the big books as well as some of the under-appreciated, under-the-radar, independent books and films and art. But the main part of The Nation is to put on the agenda the ideas and views and news that might not otherwise be there, to comment—from our perspective—on the news of the week—and to provide strategies and some measure of hope in these times."[8]

In April 2019, vanden Heuvel announced that she would step down on June 15, 2019, with D. D. Guttenplan taking her place.[9]

Washington Post

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Katrina Vanden Heuvel has written more than 140 articles for The Washington Post's Opinion Pieces section, from 2011[10] to as recently as 2022.[11] She received criticism from fellow journalist Wendy Kaminer[12] in 2019 based on the reporting standards of her article "Citizens United".[10]

Other activities

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With her husband, Stephen F. Cohen, vanden Heuvel edited Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev's Reformers (Norton, 1989). She also edited the compilation volume, The Nation: 1865–1990 (Pluto Press, 1987).

In 1990, vanden Heuvel co-founded Vy i My (You and We), a quarterly feminist journal linking American and Russian women, and elsewhere described as a Russian-language feminist newsletter.[1]

She was editor for the collection, A Just Response: The Nation on Terrorism, Democracy and September 11, 2001 (New York : Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2002) and co-edited Taking Back America – And Taking Down the Radical Right (Nation Books, 2004), and, more recently edited The Dictionary of Republicanisms (Nation Books, 2005).

As of April 2021, she continues to write an op-ed column for The Washington Post.[13]

In her several opinion pieces in the Washington Post after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she advocated avoiding enlarging NATO and consequently starting a Second Cold War with Russia and China, and also advised to "sit down and talk" to end the war in Ukraine immediately.[14][15] She also warned about war hawks who might impede the peace process.[16]

Boards and other memberships

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Vanden Heuvel is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.[17]

She also serves on the board of the Institute for Policy Studies, the World Policy Institute, the Correctional Association of New York, and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute and previously served on the board of the Institute for Women's Policy Research.[18][verification needed][self-published source?]

Awards

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In June 1987, vanden Heuvel edited a special edition of The Nation, "Gorbachev's Soviet Union", which was awarded the New York University Olive Branch Award.[1]

Vanden Heuvel was awarded Planned Parenthood's Maggie Award for her 2003 article "Right-to-Lifers Hit Russia", a report on the anti-abortion movement in that country.[citation needed] She won the NYCLU's Callaway Prize for the Defense of the Right of Privacy[19] and the American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee's "Voices of Peace" award in 2003.[1]

Vanden Heuvel has also been recognized and granted awards by the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Correctional Association, and the Association for American-Russian Women.[1]

Personal life

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In 1988, vanden Heuvel married Stephen F. Cohen, a professor of Russian studies at Princeton University and later New York University.[5][20] They were married by Presbyterian minister and peace activist William Sloane Coffin in a non-denominational ceremony.[5] The couple had one daughter, Nicola, born in 1991. The family made their residence on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.[21] Cohen died in September 2020.

In the 2016 presidential election, vanden Heuvel praised Senator Bernie Sanders as "the realist we should elect".[22]

Bibliography

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Authored

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  • Stephen F. Cohen & Katrina vanden Heuvel (1990). Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev's Reformers. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393307352.
  • Katrina vanden Heuvel (2005). Dictionary of Republicanisms: The Indispensable Guide to What They Really Mean When They Say What They Think You Want to Hear. PublicAffairs. ISBN 156025789X.
  • Katrina vanden Heuvel (2011). The Change I Believe In: Fighting for Progress in the Age of Obama. New York: Nation Books. ISBN 9781568586885.

Edited

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  • A Just Response: The Nation on Terrorism, Democracy, and September 11, 2001 (2002), edited by Katrina vanden Heuvel (ISBN 1-56025-400-9)
  • Taking Back America – And Taking Down the Radical Right (2004), edited by Katrina vanden Heuvel and Robert Borosage (ISBN 1-56025-583-8)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Stange, Mary Zeiss; Oyster, Carol K.; Sloanm Jane E. (2011). Encyclopedia of Women in Today's World. Vol. 4. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. pp. 1510f. ISBN 9781412976855.
  2. ^ a b McDougal, Dennis (2001). The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Da Capo. pp. 27, 412, 422f, and passim. ISBN 0306810506. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  3. ^ The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, McA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood By Dennis McDougal p 27
  4. ^ The Village Voice: "Vanden Heuvel: Horatio Alger in Upper Bohemia" October 27, 1960
  5. ^ a b c NYT Staff (December 5, 1988). "Ms. vanden Heuvel Is Wed". The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  6. ^ vanden Heuvel, Katrina (1982). "American Victims: A Study of the Anti-Communist Crusade".
  7. ^ a b Carmody, Deirdre (January 14, 1995). "Editor in Deal for Nation Magazine". The New York Times. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  8. ^ Hamm, Theodore (December 10, 2005). "Katrina vanden Heuvel in Conversation with Theodore Hamm". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved April 9, 2014.
  9. ^ Hsu, Tiffany (April 8, 2019). "Katrina vanden Heuvel to Step Down as Editor of The Nation". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2019.
  10. ^ a b vanden Heuvel, Katrina (January 18, 2011). "Reversing 'Citizens United'". Washington Post.
  11. ^ "The burden of peace is not on Ukraine". Washington Post. November 18, 2022.
  12. ^ Kaminer, Wendy (February 10, 2011). "Why Katrina vanden Heuvel Declines to Acknowledge a Mistake". The Atlantic.
  13. ^ WP Staff (December 9, 2016). "Katrina vanden Heuvel [contribution list]". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
  14. ^ vanden Heuvel, Katrina (November 15, 2022). "How to end the war in Ukraine? Sit down and talk. It's time". Washington Post. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  15. ^ "Opinion | What do Americans care about? Not a Cold War with Russia and China". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved April 24, 2023.
  16. ^ vanden Heuvel, Katrina (May 24, 2022). "We need a real debate about the Ukraine war". Washington Post. Retrieved May 11, 2023.
  17. ^ "Membership Roster – Council on Foreign Relations". cfr.org. August 2, 2012. Retrieved August 7, 2012.
  18. ^ vanden Heuvel, Katrina (December 9, 2016). "Katrina vanden Heuvel" (autobiosketch). The Nation. Retrieved December 10, 2016.
  19. ^ "About Katrina vanden Heuvel". Yale.edu. April 20, 2011. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  20. ^ "Stephen F. Cohen profile". Russianslavic.as.nyu.edu. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
  21. ^ Haughney, Christine (August 3, 2012). "Sunday Routine: Peace, Quiet and a Frozen Dessert". The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  22. ^ "Bernie Sanders is the realist we should elect". The Washington Post. January 26, 2016.
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