Emily St. James

Not to be confused with Emily St. John Mandel.

Emily St. James (formerly Emily Nicole VanDerWerff; born November 30, 1982^[2]) is an American critic, journalist, podcaster, and author. She primarily writes about television. She has written for Vox, The A.V. Club, The Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, Grantland, and Slant Magazine, among others.^[3]

Emily St. James
Born	(1982-11-30) November 30, 1982 (age 42) Armour, South Dakota, U.S.[1]
Occupation	Critic writer journalist author
Education	South Dakota State University
Notable works	Monsters of the Week: The Complete Critical Companion to The X-Files
Spouse	Libby Hill ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	1

Education

St. James graduated from South Dakota State University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in journalism. During her time, she wrote for the university's student publication, The Collegian.^[1]

Career

From 2009 to 2014, St. James was the TV editor for The A.V. Club, helping to build the TV Club, known for television criticism of shows episode by episode. TV Club, while led by St. James, has been credited with helping build the online culture of television recaps.^[4]

In June 2014, St. James joined Vox as their culture editor,^[5] going on to become their Critic at Large.^[6] She is also involved in Arden, a true crime parody podcast,^[7][8] as well as running Vox's Primetime, a television history podcast.^[9] She was a finalist in the 2015 Online Journalism Awards for her media criticism around horror films, coverage of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign announcement, and review of Mad Max: Fury Road.^[10]

In 2018, St. James and fellow critic Zack Handlen wrote Monsters of the Week: The Complete Critical Companion to The X-Files, which was published by Tor Books.^[11] This was followed in 2024 by Lost: Back to the Island: The Complete Critical Companion to the Classic TV Series, which she co-wrote with Noel Murray.^[12]

In July 2020, she spoke out against fellow Vox columnist Matthew Yglesias, following his signing of an open letter published in Harper's Magazine which called for an end to what it described as "illiberalism."^[13][14] After a tweet about her criticism by Jesse Singal, one of the letter's signatories, St. James reported that she had received death threats.^[15][16]

St. James has appeared on The George Lucas Talk Show during their May the 4th Marathon and Holiday Special.^[17]

After leaving Vox, St. James moved into novel and television writing. She and her spouse joined the writers' room of Yellowjackets for the show's third season, receiving writing credits for the sixth episode,^[18] broadcast in March 2025. In the same month, St. James' debut novel, Woodworking, was also published by Zando.^[19] The book, a coming-of-age story set in Mitchell, South Dakota, is about Erica Skyberg, a high school teacher who is a closeted trans woman. In order to figure out how to come out to her peers, Erica enlists the help of her student, Abigail Hawkes, a trans girl (and the only openly trans person Erica knows).^[19]

Personal life

St. James came out as a trans woman in 2019.^[20] She was interviewed on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday about her experience with gender.^[21] She is a founding member of the Trans Journalists Association and helped create its style guide, a resource for other journalists to more accurately write about transgender people and issues.^[22]

She has been married to writer Libby Hill since 2003.^[23] She changed her last name from VanDerWerff to St. James in January 2022.^[24] St. James had a child in 2022.^[25]