Molly Jong-Fast

Molly Jong-Fast (born 1978^[1][2]) is an American journalist, novelist, and political commentator.^[3]

Molly Jong-Fast
Jong-Fast in 2023
Born	August 1978 (age 47) Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.
Education	Bennington College (MFA)
Occupations	Journalist novelist political commentator
Spouse	Matthew Greenfield ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	3
Parents	Erica Jong Jonathan Fast
Relatives	Howard Fast (grandfather) Peter Daou (cousin)

Early life

Jong-Fast was born in August 1978 in Stamford, Connecticut,^[4] to novelist Erica Jong and author Jonathan Fast.^[1][5] She is the granddaughter of writer Howard Fast.^[1] Her parents divorced during her childhood, and she was raised an only child^[6] in Manhattan,^[7] by a nanny whom Jong-Fast says essentially raised her as Catholic.^[8] Her family is Jewish.^[9]

Jong-Fast struggled with substance abuse as a teenager, spending a month in a drug rehabilitation facility at age 19.^[2] She graduated from the Riverdale Country School and later attended Wesleyan University, Barnard College, and New York University, but did not graduate.^[10] She obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from Bennington College in 2004.^[1]

Career

Jong-Fast is the author of two novels, Normal Girl^[1][11] and The Social Climber's Handbook, and three memoirs, Girl [Maladjusted], The Sex Doctors in the Basement,^[1][12][13] and How to Lose Your Mother.^[14]

After the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Jong-Fast began focusing her writing on politics,^[15] becoming a prominent left-wing political commentator during the first presidency of Donald Trump.^[2] She became a regular contributor to The Forward,^[16] The Bulwark,^[17] Playboy,^[18] Glamour,^[19] and Vogue.^[20] She has written for The New York Times, W, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Marie Claire, the Times of London, Elle, Modern Bride, and The Forward.^[1]

In December 2019, Jong-Fast became an editor-at-large at The Daily Beast, hosting the podcast The New Abnormal.^[21] In November 2021, she became a contributing writer at The Atlantic,^[22] and the writer of its Wait, What? newsletter.^[23] In 2022, she joined Vanity Fair as a special correspondent and began hosting the Fast Politics iHeart Media podcast. In January 2024, she joined MSNBC as a political analyst.^[24]

In 2025, Viking Books published Jong-Fast's third memoir, How to Lose Your Mother, which became a New York Times Bestseller within three weeks.^[25] A reviewer for The New York Times describes the book as "read[ing] like a score-settling marathon at times, but also like a loving elegy".^[2] Novelist Martha McPhee wrote for The Washington Post that How to Lose Your Mother was a "transformative work of alchemy" with "lines so good you won't just want to underline them, you will want to cut them out to share".^[3] Oprah Magazine called How to Lose Your Mother "hilarious and heartbreaking" and "the story of a singular mother-daughter relationship that will resonate with anyone who grew up playing second fiddle to a parent’s passions."^[26]

Personal life

In 2003, Jong-Fast married CUNY professor Matthew Adlai Greenfield.^[27][28][29] They have three children.^[30] She has written about her experience with Alcoholics Anonymous.^[31]

Jong-Fast is a cousin of Lebanese-American political strategist Peter Daou.^[32] As of 2007^[update], she lives on the Upper East Side of New York City with her family.^[7]

Publications

• Normal Girl (2000). ISBN 0-37-575759-7
• The Sex Doctors in the Basement: True Stories from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood (2005). ISBN 1-40-006144-X.
• Girl [Maladjusted]: True Stories from a Semi-Celebrity Childhood (2006). ISBN 0-81-297074-8
• The Social Climber's Handbook: A novel (2011). ISBN 0-34-550189-6
• How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter's Memoir (2025). ISBN 0-59-365647-4