Evelyn McDonnell

Evelyn McDonnell is a professor of journalism at Loyola Marymount University. She has been writing about popular culture and society for more than 20 years. She is the author of five books: The World According to Joan Didion (published by Harper One September 26, 2023), 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 Rock She Wrote: Women Write About Rock, Pop and Rap; Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky: Music and Myth; and Women Who Rock: Bessie to Beyoncé. Girl Groups to Riot Grrrl. She also edited the Music Matters series published by the University of Texas Press. She has been the editorial director of 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 Grrrls on Film festivals at LMU and 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 multiple National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and Southern California Journalism awards. She was an Annenberg Fellow at USC and a fellow to the NEA Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. Her 2004 Herald expose of hip-hop cops 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 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. And she is a proud member of the Beloit Memorial High School Hall of Fame. Author photo by Jon Rou.