Edith Zimmerman, writer, editor, and Forbes 30 under 30 list recipient. While she is incredibly accomplished with articles in GQ, New York Magazine, Glamour, and Vice, she is most known for, at least within the confines of the Writer’s Workshop classroom, as writer of the profile Chris Evans: American Marvel.
1. What would you say is your biggest piece of advice to someone who would want to pursue a career as a journalist?
Read a lot, write a lot, send a lot of emails. Most people are usually right there on the other side and are happy to respond, especially if you sound sane and genuinely curious. Try to have fun, to make the work fun or meaningful to yourself in some way. Usually what makes it worthwhile to you also makes it engaging for a reader. Don’t be afraid of asking what seem like stupid questions. (I haven’t always followed these rules.)
2. Do you think that studying English in college properly prepared you for the writing you do as a journalist? Why, or why not?
I do. I mostly studied poetry and fiction in college. Halfway through, I got interested in writing for the school newspaper, because a girl I admired was doing it, and I thought it looked fun. I pitched a travel column, which I wrote for a couple years and really enjoyed. I didn’t take any journalism classes and have never really considered myself a journalist, although I can pitch myself as one in a cover letter. Studying poetry was probably most influential to the way I create things, although at first it seemed a little insane.
3. When did you discover writing was what you wanted to do as a career?
When I was writing that travel column for my college paper. I was like, “Oh, this is awesome. People tell me they liked what I wrote, and I get to have my little picture in the paper, too!” It was a thrill. At first I thought I wanted to be a travel writer for magazines, but then I fell in love with the internet, and my career hasn’t followed any kind of traditional arc. (And right now I’m a stay-at-home mom.)
4. Do you prefer writing or editing more?
Writing! But editing is also great. Especially when it’s my own work that I’ve put away for a week or 10, and I can see it with fresh eyes, and it’s like the stuff that needs to stay is glowing and the rest is blatantly garbage.
5. In your profile of Chris Evans, there is an air of humor and fun to it, was that your intention going into it?
Yes, 100%! At the time he wasn’t that famous, and GQ’s July issue was typically their least-read of the year (or something to that effect), so I remember thinking, “What the hell; let’s try to make this as interesting as possible!” It was also the first time anyone had asked me to write a magazine story, and I just wanted to make it not-boring. I certainly didn’t intend or expect the story to go in the direction it did, but I’m very happy it did and that they wanted to publish it.
6. What writers do you strongly admire?
Hard to answer! How about… Leo Tolstoy, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Jane Austen, Elizabeth Kolbert, PD James, Agatha Christie, Patrick O’Brian, Christian Lorentzen, Hunter Harris, and Jim Behrle. Just to name a few!
7. You have published many articles across different publications— what would you say is the piece you are most proud of?
Probably the wordless blog post “Women Laughing Alone With Salad,” because it made a lot of people laugh, and I can’t think of anything more satisfying. (The site long ago deleted its comments, but the post reached millions of people, with hundreds of thousands of shares, and eventually became an official meme. Heaven!!)
