Garance Franke-Ruta is the executive editor of GEN by Medium. She has worked as Washington editor of Yahoo News and editor in chief of Yahoo Politics, Voices columnist and politics editor of ''The Atlantic'' Online, national web politics editor for the ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'', senior editor at the '' American Prospect'' and senior writer at the ''

Washington City Paper The ''Washington City Paper'' is a U.S. alternative weekly newspaper serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The ''City Paper'' is distributed on Thursdays; its average circulation in 2006 was 85,588. The paper's editorial mix is focu ...

'', D.C.'s alternative weekly newspaper. Her work has also appeared in ''Medium'' magazine, ''New York'', ''The'' ''Wall Street Journal'', ''The Atlantic'', ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

'', ''Slate'', ''Salon'', ''

The Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine of United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine is known for its annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which serves as an alterna ...

'', ''

Legal Affairs ''Legal Affairs'' was an American legal magazine that was launched under the auspices of Yale Law School, and which later became an independent non-profit venture with an educational mission. As the first general-interest legal magazine, ''Legal A ...

'', ''

Utne Reader ''Utne Reader'' (also known as ''Utne'') ( ) is a digital digest that collects and reprints articles on politics, culture, and the environment, generally from alternative media sources including journals, newsletters, weeklies, zines, music, and ...

'' and '' National Journal''. After first attending Hunter College, she transferred to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1997.

Early life

Franke-Ruta was born on July 29, 1972 in

Cavaillon Cavaillon (; Provençal: ''Cavalhon'') is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France.Lacoste, Vaucluse Lacoste (; oc, La Còsta) is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Its population doubles in size during the height of the summer tourist season. Geography Lacoste is a pictur ...

, and grew up in

San Cristóbal de las Casas San Cristóbal de las Casas (), also known by its native Tzotzil name, Jovel (), is a town and municipality located in the Central Highlands region of the Mexican state of Chiapas. It was the capital of the state until 1892, and is still cons ...

in Chiapas, Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and New York City. Her first name is a French word referring to rose madder, a shade of red, and is the name of the main character in '' Les Enfants du Paradis''. Franke-Ruta is the daughter of painter Peter Ruta, granddaughter of

Nelson Frank Julian Nelson Frank (1906–1974) was a journalist for the ''New York World-Telegram'', an anti-communist special agent with U.S. Naval Intelligence, and an investigator for the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee.Vanessa Ruta Vanessa Julia Ruta, Ph.D. is an American neuroscientist known for her work on the structure and function of chemosensory circuits underlying innate and learned behaviors in the fly ''Drosophila melanogaster.'' She is the Gabrielle H. Reem and Her ...

, niece of

Johanna Hurwitz Johanna Hurwitz (born October 9, 1937) is an American author of more than sixty children's books. She has sold millions of books in many different languages. Life and career Hurwitz graduated from Queens College, New York with a degree in Englis ...

, and cousin of

Ted Frank Theodore H. Frank (born December 14, 1968) is an American lawyer, activist, and legal writer, based in Washington, D.C. He is the counsel of record and petitioner in '' Frank v. Gaos'', the first Supreme Court case to deal with the issue of '' c ...

. She attended Santa Fe High School and a private high school in Santa Fe, New Mexico, each for one year, before obtaining a G.E.D. from the state of New Mexico in 1988. She then moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and was a central part of activist group ACT UP, participating in many protests to fight AIDS, as seen in the documentary film ''

How to Survive a Plague ''How to Survive a Plague'' is a 2012 American documentary film about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the efforts of activist groups ACT UP and TAG. It was directed by David France, a journalist who covered AIDS from its beginnings. ...

.''

Awards

*201
Vermont Studio Center
residency *201
pocoapoco
residency, Oaxaca, Mexico *2018 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center practitioner residency *2018 Downtown Las Vega
Plympton-Writer's Block residency
*201
Journalist Law School fellow
Loyola Law School *201
The 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013
''Time'' magazine *2007 ''Iowa Independent'' senior fellow in Des Moines, Iowa *2007

Hillman Prize The Hillman Prize is a journalism award given out annually by The Sidney Hillman Foundation, named for noted American labor leader Sidney Hillman. It is given to "journalists, writers and public figures who pursue social justice and public polic ...

br>for "Tapped", ''The American Prospect''
*2006 Shorenstein Center fellow, Harvard University's

John F. Kennedy School of Government The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

*200
9/11 Security and Liberty fellow
USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism

References

External links

Video (and audio) of debates and discussions involving Franke-Ruta
at

BloggingHeads.tv Bloggingheads.tv (sometimes abbreviated "bhtv") is a political, world events, philosophy, and science video blog discussion site in which the participants take part in an active back and forth conversation via webcam which is then broadcast on ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Franke-Ruta, Garance 1972 births Living people People from Cavaillon Harvard University alumni Hunter College alumni The Atlantic (magazine) people The Washington Post people American women journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women