Koa Beck

Koa Beck is the author of the acclaimed nonfiction book White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind (Simon & Schuster, January 2021), praised by feminist writers Gloria Steinem and Rebecca Traister. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of Jezebel, the executive editor of Vogue.com, and the senior features editor at MarieClaire.com. Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the cofounder of Black Lives Matter, describes Koa’s work as “intellectually smart and emotionally intelligent” while the Boston Globe has deemed her “a perceptive cultural critic” and “a visionary.”

Her reporting and analysis on gender, identity, race, and culture have been published in TheAtlantic.com, Out magazine, TIME, TheGuardian.com, The Globe and Mail, Esquire.com, among others. She has spoken at Harvard Law School, Columbia Journalism School, The New York Times, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among other institutions. She has also been interviewed by the BBC for her insight into American feminism. 

Koa was a guest editor for the 2019 special Pride section of The New York Times commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, editing such prominent voices as Kate Bornstein, Gavin Grimm, Julia Serano, and Barbara Smith, among other activists.

Her short stories have been published in Slice, Kalyani Magazine, and Apogee Journal. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and serves on the board of directors of Nat.Brut, an art and literary magazine, as well as on the advisory board of GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics. 

In 2019, Koa was was awarded the Joan Shorenstein Fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, publishing an academic paper entitled “Self-Optimization in the Face of Patriarchy: How Mainstream Women’s Media Facilitates White Feminism.” 

In 2022, Koa was awarded the Alan Jutzi Fellowship at The Huntington to research her next book. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife.