About Evelyn

Evelyn McDonnell has been writing about popular culture and society for more than 30 years. She is the author of five books: The World According to Joan Didion, Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways, Mamarama: A Memoir of Sex, Kids and Rock ‘n’ Roll, Army of She: Icelandic, Iconoclastic, Irrepressible Bjork and Rent by Jonathan Larson. She coedited the anthologies Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyoncé. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl, Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap (with Ann Powers) and Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth (with Karen Kelly). She was also series editor for Music Matters, short books about iconic musicians.

Evelyn is a Professor of Journalism at Loyola Marymount University. She has been the editorial director of http://www.MOLI.com, pop culture writer at The Miami Herald, senior editor at The Village Voice, and associate editor at SF Weekly. Her writing on music, poetry, theater, and culture has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including  the Los Angeles Times, Ms., Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Spin, Travel & Leisure, Us, Billboard, Vibe, Interview, Black Book, and Option. She codirected the conference Stars Don’t Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth at the Dia Center for the Arts in New York in 1998. She has won several fellowships and awards, including an Annenberg Fellowship at USC, a fellowship to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater, and several National Arts and Entertainment Journalism and Southern California Journalism Awards. Her 2004 Herald expose of hip-hop cops, written with Nicole White, was awarded first place for enterprise reporting by the South Florida Black Journalists Association and second place in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sunshine State Awards. She is a member of the Beloit Memorial High School Hall of Fame.

She earned her Master’s in Specialized Journalism, the Arts, from USC, where she was chosen for the Phi Kappa Phi honor society. She earned her Bachelor’s in American studies, graduating magna cum laude from Brown University.

Evelyn can be reached at evelyn@evelynmcdonnell.com.

Twitter: @EvelynMcDonnell

IG: MsLadyEvelyn

Photo by Jon Rou