Ema O’Connor is a writer, journalist, organizer, and a born, raised, and prodigal New Yorker, based in Brooklyn and elsewhere.
Ema is currently working on a narrative nonfiction book about the next generation of grassroots reproductive justice activists providing care where the government has failed, to be published by Crooked Media Reads, an imprint of Zando Projects, in 2024. More information here.
Ema also publishes freelance articles on reproductive rights, health, and justice, as well as personal essays, op-eds, and culture reporting. She also works part time as a union organizer for the News Guild of New York. Before going freelance, Ema was a reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News for eight years. There she edited essays and breaking news and wrote features and investigations on the national and politics desks — in DC and NY — focusing on gender, race, identity, inequality, and reproductive rights, justice, and health. During her BFN tenure she wrote and published 696 articles. She got her start in journalism editing book reviews written by children at The Guardian in London.
Ema’s reporting has triggered multiple federal investigations, inspired legislation, and forced CEOs to step down. She is a 2024 Monson Arts Award Recipient, was a 2022 and 2020 finalist for a Society of Professional Journalists Award, a 2023 Wassaic Projects Fellow, a 2023 and 2021 VCCA Fellow, a 2019 IWMF Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice in the Americas grantee, a 2018 IWMF African Great Lakes Fellow, and a 2016 Dateline Club Award Finalist.
She graduated from Columbia University in 2014 with a BA in English and Art History. She also does a lot of crafty home projects and antique and vintage collecting, and sometimes sells her wares at flea markets and online.
You can email her at ema.oconnor@gmail.com
Photo by Chris Risch