Vanessa GrigoriadisEditor
In February of 2008 I came across a cover story Vanessa had written for Rolling Stone, The Tragedy of Britney Spears. The article was so captivating that I made a note in my journal and put her name on my radar. Over the next couple of years I continued to see her work in a variety of magazines. I did some research and discovered that she is a contributing editor at New York Magazine, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. To my surprise I also learned that she plays the classical violin and danced with the great Alvin Ailey in her teens. She was a writer on the Style desk at the New York Times in 2003. Prior to that, she spent a year studying the sociology of religion at Harvard University. Vanessa won the National Magazine Award in Profile Writing in 2007, for a profile of Karl Lagerfeld. She was also nominated for the 2008 Award in Feature Writing for a New York magazine cover story, "Gawker and the Rise of the Creative Underclass."
Obviously, I needed to ask her a few questions.
Who are you?
Should I leave this one blank? Just kidding. That's the existential dread talking. I'm a journalist in her mid thirties living in Los Angeles. I write for New York magazine, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
Until high school, I thought that I would be a concert violinist. In high school and college, I planned to become an actress. Performing arts were very important to me when I was younger. I never imagined that I would be a writer. It wasn't my dream.
How did you get to where you are today?
I landed my first job in journalism very easily. Since then, I've done a lot of hard work.
What do you LOVE?
I love reporting. It's so weird and alienating to be an interviewer, and I dig that. It takes me out of everyday life. It's one of the only times in life when I am completely open to changing my mind. Subjects often ask me what my angle is going to be on a story, but I really don't know. I figure out what I'm going to write by listening to what I'm told. Then, later, when my fingers hit the keyboard, I start making some decisions.
Do you have a process?
Well, every day is different. Sometimes I spend the entire day reporting with a subject. Other times I procrastinate. I work all times of the day and days of the week, so I don't mind taking a Wednesday off if I'm not feeling creative. I do have a bad habit of delaying the actual writing portion of the job until one second before it's way too late. But I have worked most of the story out in my mind by then -- I know the way I am planning to go with the beginning and end, at least.
Often, I do begin in the morning, with a cup of coffee. I usually sit at my desk at home, but I can work anywhere with a good set of earphones. Generally, I write until I start to get confused and then I leave the house to do a few errands or take a yoga class. I find that I can fix logical problems very easily with a couple hours off. Then I write some more until I begin to feel sluggish, around 4pm. I usually don't return to work until after dinner. Sometimes, I can get a headwind and write thousands of words then, but often I am only good for a couple hundred. With pieces that are over, say, three thousand words, I usually print the piece out once I have finished the first draft so that I can read it while sitting outside, in a comfortable chair. Sometimes, I realize at this point that the story is a mess, and I begin again.
What is your favorite color?
Purple, because of Prince.
Which bear is best?
Gummy bears!
What is something you had to learn the hard way?
I had to learn to shut up. Now I am proud of always keeping my confidences.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I will probably write a book and start a family. Other than that, I have no idea.
Best advice you could give to someone coming out of college.
I think that kids should take themselves more seriously than I did. I had a big chip on my shoulder about authority coming out of college and it hasn't served me well. I never wanted to be seen as a poseur, someone who thought that she knew more than everyone else. I thought that was humility, but in fact I often sold myself short. It's manifested in an anxiety about my work that seems unnecessary.
3 of your favorite books:
I'm going to mention the epic Al Qaeda narrative The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright, because it is my new favorite book. Also, Ghost Wars by Steve Coll. I was pretty into Heartburn, by Nora Ephron, when I was a teenager -- I've probably read it twenty times.
What is one thing most people would be surprised to learn about you?
I'm a hippie in disguise.
Who are some of your influences?
Well, my biggest influence is usually the last article or non-fiction book that I loved -- I'm a real fan of this stuff. Early in my career, I was very influenced by Tom Wolfe and the other New Journalists who started out at New York magazine long ago. I want my articles to be very easy to see in your mind, like a short movie. I love Erik Hedegaard, a fantastic profiler at Rolling Stone, and Larissa MacFarquhar at the New Yorker. Also, George Packer, Ian Parker, George Gurley, Mark Jacobson, Ariel Levy, Philip Weiss, Emily Nussbaum, Clive Thompson, Claire Hoffman, and Alex Ross are other non-fiction writers to whom I have pledged a scary allegiance. I'm pretty down with the short-form work of Choire Sicha and Alex Balk as well.
How do you define success?
Success is feeling content with life.
A punctuation pet peeve.
I don't like semicolons that are used as an elongated comma. Of course, I fall back on them when I'm lazy.
What personality trait is most important in success?
Curiosity. And more social climbing than I know how to manage.
Words to live by:
Ecstasy is our very nature. We need great effort to be miserable. -Osho
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