Nona Willis Aronowitz

{{Infobox person

| name = Nona Willis Aronowitz

| image = Nona Willis Aronowitz at Wesleyan University.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| alt =

| caption = Willis Aronowitz in {{circa|2012}}

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1984}}

| birth_place = United States

| death_date =

| death_place =

| other_names =

| occupation = {{hlist | Author | editor}}

| years_active =

| known_for =

| notable_works =

| movement = Feminism

| spouse = {{marriage|Aaron Cassara|2009|reason=divorce}}{{cite magazine|first=Nona Willis|last= Aronowitz | date=August 9, 2022|title=Why I Stayed in a Marriage That Was Making Me Miserable|magazine=Time|format = book excerpt|url=https://time.com/6202816/marriage-status-bump-privilege/|access-date = December 24, 2022}}{{better source | date = December 2022}} This source is an excerpt from the title subjects's

2022 memoir, BAD SEX: Truth, Pleasure, and an Unfinished Revolution published by Plume-Penguin Publishing Group.{{better source | date = December 2022}}

| parents = {{hlist | Stanley Aronowitz | Ellen Willis}}

|alma_mater = Wesleyan University

}}

Nona Willis Aronowitz (born 1984) is a New York-based writer and editor, whose work focuses on "women, sex, politics, and the economy".{{cite web | author = Loughran, Sean | date = 10 August 2022 | title = In Conversation With Nona Willis Aronowitz [introductory biosketch] | work = AvocadoDiaries.com | url = https://www.avocadodiaries.com/2022/08/Nona-Willis-Aronowitz-interview.html | access-date = 13 August 2022 | quote = Nona Willis Aronowitz is our guest on AD's In Conversation With today. She's an award-winning editor, writer, and author based in New York. In addition to her biweekly sex and love advice column for Teen Vogue, Nona’s work has been published by a number of other outlets including The New York Times, The Cut, ELLE, VICE, and Playboy.}} She was the sex and love advice columnist for Teen Vogue from 2019 to 2023. She is the author of Bad Sex, a 2022 memoir published by Plume-Penguin Random House, and served as an award-winning editor of collections of her mother's works. Aronowitz has worked for NBC, NPR, and other news venues, and her writings have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Guardian, and other venues.

Early life and education

Aronowitz was born in 1984,{{cn|date = August 2022}} and is the daughter of the late Ellen Willis, a journalist, writer on feminist and cultural issues, and NYU faculty member, and the late Stanley Aronowitz, a blue-collar organizer, writer, and CUNY faculty member.{{cite web | author = Fox, Margalit | date = November 10, 2006 | title = Ellen Willis, 64, Journalist and Feminist, Dies | work = The New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/arts/10willis.html | access-date = December 24, 2022 }}{{cite web|title=Stanley Aronowitz, Labor Scholar and Activist, Dies at 88 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/21/us/stanley-aronowitz-dead.html|work=The New York Times|last=Roberts|first=Sam|date=August 21, 2021|accessdate=August 23, 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/6062|title=Willis, Ellen. Papers of Ellen Willis, 1941-2011|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|accessdate=2019-09-23}}

She graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in American studies in 2006.{{cite web|author=lukeguy-walker |url=http://wesleying.org/tag/wesleyan-alum/ |title=wesleyan alum |publisher=Wesleying |date= November 2012|accessdate=2017-04-28}}{{cite web|author = WMC Staff | date = 13 August 2022 | title = Nona Willis Aronowitz | url=https://womensmediacenter.com/shesource/expert/nona-willis-aronowitz

| accessdate=13 August 2022 | quote = Nona Willis Aronowitz is an author, reporter, and editor who writes about women, sex, politics, and the economy. She's the features editor for Splinter, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Playboy, and Rookie, among many others. In the past, she's worked for Talking Points Memo, NBC, NPR, Good Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune. She writes a regular newsletter called F*cking Through the Apocalypse. / With Emma Bee Bernstein, she is the co-author of the book Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism, a roadtrip book of essays and photography about the state of young feminism across the United States. She's also the editor of an award-winning anthology of her mother Ellen Willis's rock criticism, called Out of the Vinyl Deeps, as well as a more comprehensive collection of her work, The Essential Ellen Willis, which won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle award for Criticism.}}

Career

Aronowitz has been a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute,{{when | date = August 2022}} worked as an education and poverty reporter at NBC News Digital,{{when | date = August 2022}} worked as an associate editor at GOOD magazine,{{when | date = August 2022}} and has written for various publications.{{what | date = August 2022}}{{cite web|url=http://theothernwa.com/clips |title=Selected Clips — Nona Willis Aronowitz |publisher=Theothernwa.com |date= |accessdate=2017-04-28}}

=Writing and editing corpus =

In 2009 Nona and Emma Bee Bernstein's book Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism, about their drive across America talking with women about feminism and being women, was published.{{cite web|url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-58005-273-3 |title=Nonfiction Book Review: Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism by Nona Willis Aronowitz|publisher=Publishersweekly.com |date=2009-10-05 |accessdate=2017-04-28}}{{cite web|url=http://www.pitch.com/news/article/20579342/friday-book-review-girldrive-by-nona-willis-aronowitz-and-emma-bee-bernstein |title=Friday Book Review: Girldrive by Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein |publisher=Pitch.com |date=2010-02-05 |accessdate=2017-04-28}}

In 2013, Aronowitz cofounded{{what| date =August 2022}} Tomorrow, a one-shot magazine about "creative destruction".{{cite web|url=https://journalism.missouri.edu/alum/ann-friedman/ |title=Ann Friedman|publisher=Missouri School of Journalism|date=2013-07-24 |accessdate=2017-04-28}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tomorrowmagazine.com/ |title=Welcome |work=Tomorrow Magazine |date= |accessdate=2017-04-28}}

Aronowitz edited a collection of her mother’s work entitled The Essential Ellen Willis, which appeared in 2014.{{cite web |url=http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards#2014 |title=National Book Critics Circle: awards |publisher=National Book Critics Circle |date= |accessdate=2017-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018063346/http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/#2014 |archive-date=2015-10-18 |url-status=dead }} She also edited Out of the Vinyl Deeps (University of Minnesota Press, 2011), the first collection of Ellen Willis's music reviews and essays.{{cite news|last=McDonnell|first=Evelyn|title=Ellen Willis's Pioneering Rock Criticism|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/books/review/book-review-out-of-the-vinyl-deeps-ellen-willis-on-rock-music.html?pagewanted=all|accessdate=November 15, 2011|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 10, 2011}}

Aronowitz created and edited "The Slice", a features section at Talking Points Memo which began in 2015.{{cite web|url=http://wesleyanargus.com/2016/04/25/nona-willis-aronowitz-06-on-forging-a-career-in-journalism/ |title=Nona Willis Aronowitz '06 Offers Advice on Breaking into Journalism in the Internet Age |publisher=The Wesleyan Argus |date=2016-04-25 |accessdate=2017-04-28}}{{cite web|url=http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/welcome-to-the-slice |title=Introducing The Slice! |publisher=Talkingpointsmemo.com |date=2015-01-14 |accessdate=2017-04-28}}

As of 2017, Aronowitz was the features editor for Splinter (previously Fusion) and writing the weekly newsletter "Fucking Through the Apocalypse".{{cite web|url=http://splinternews.com/about |title=About Splinter |date=January 2017 |publisher=Splinter |accessdate=2020-08-02}}{{cite web|url=http://theothernwa.com/about |title=About — Nona Willis Aronowitz |publisher=Theothernwa.com |date= |accessdate=2017-04-28}}{{cite web|url=http://tinyletter.com/nona/letters/fucking-the-pain-away |title=fucking the pain away |publisher=Tinyletter.com |date=2017-02-02 |accessdate=2017-04-28}}

In 2019, Aronowitz began writing a sex and relationships column for Teen Vogue.{{Cite web |title=Nona Willis Aronowitz archive |url=https://www.teenvogue.com/contributor/nona-willis-aronowitz?page=2 |access-date=7 September 2022 |website=Teen Vogue}}

Aronowitz is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.{{cite web|url=http://www.shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com/women/|title=The Women|publisher=}}{{cite web|url=http://www.shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com/the-film/ |title=The Film — She's Beautiful When She's Angry |publisher=Shesbeautifulwhenshesangry.com |date= |accessdate=2017-04-28}}

In October 2019, it was announced that Aronowitz had signed a book deal with Plume for a book called Bad Sex, “a blend of memoir, social history, and cultural criticism” that examines why, “despite the ubiquity of both sex and feminism, true sexual freedom remains elusive.” {{Cite web|url=https://www.bookforum.com/papertrail/nona-willis-aronowitz-sells-new-book-to-plume-abrams-creates-new-lgbtq-focused-imprint-23694|title=Nona Willis Aronowitz sells new book to Plume; Abrams creates new LGBTQ-focused imprint|website=www.bookforum.com}}{{Cite news |last=Bennett |first=Jessica |date=2022-08-09 |title=Everything You Always Wanted to Know About 'Bad Sex' but Were Afraid to Ask |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/09/books/review/nona-willis-aronowitz-bad-sex.html |access-date=2022-08-10 |issn=0362-4331}}

Awards and recognition

The one-shot magazine, Tomorrow, cofounded by Aronowitz,{{what|date = August 2022}} was nominated for an Utne Media Award for general excellence.{{cite web|url=https://journalism.missouri.edu/alum/ann-friedman/ |title=Ann Friedman|publisher=Missouri School of Journalism|date=2013-07-24 |accessdate=2017-04-28}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tomorrowmagazine.com/ |title=Welcome |work=Tomorrow Magazine |date= |accessdate=2017-04-28}}

Aronowitz's collection of her mother's work, The Essential Ellen Willis, won the 2014 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism.{{cite web |url=http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards#2014 |title=National Book Critics Circle: awards |publisher=National Book Critics Circle |date= |accessdate=2017-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018063346/http://bookcritics.org/awards/past_awards/#2014 |archive-date=2015-10-18 |url-status=dead }}