Deborah Copaken Explained

Deborah Copaken
Birth Name:Deborah Elizabeth Copaken
Birth Place:Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma Mater:Harvard University
Subject:Arts and letters, photography
Children:3; including Jacob

Deborah Elizabeth Copaken (born 1966)[1] is an American author and photojournalist.[2]

Early life and education

Copaken was born in Boston, Massachusetts,[2] the daughter of Marjorie Ann (née Schwartz) and Richard Daniel Copaken. Her father was a White House Fellow and lawyer.[3] [4] She grew up in Maryland, first in Adelphi, and then from 1970 in Potomac.[5] She has three siblings.[6] She graduated from Harvard University in 1988.[7]

Career

Prior to beginning a writing career, Copaken was a war photographer from 1988 to 1992, and a television producer at ABC and NBC from 1992 to 1998.[5] For the former, she was based in Paris and Moscow, while shooting assignments on conflicts in Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Romania, Pakistan, Israel, Soviet Union and other places.[8] She first worked as a producer at Day One in ABC News, where she received an Emmy, then in Dateline NBC.[9]

In 2001, she published a memoir of her experiences in war photojournalism, Shutterbabe. Her first novel Between Here and April was published in 2008 and won the November Elle Reader's Prize.[10] In 2009, she released a book of comic essays, Hell is Other Parents, some of which appeared in the New Yorker and The New York Times.[11] [12]

Her second novel, The Red Book (Hyperion/Voice, 2012), was a New York Times bestseller. The book was long-listed for the 2013 Women's Prize for Fiction.[13] In 2016 and 2017, she released two nonfiction books, The ABCs of Adulthood and The ABCs of Parenthood, in collaboration with illustrator Randy Polumbo.[14] [15]

She has written several articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Observer, The Atlantic, Business Insider, The Nation and others.[16]

She has performed and curated live storytelling for The Moth, Afterbirth, the Six Word Memoir series, Women of Letters, and Words and Music.[5] She has also ventured into screenwriting, and it was reported that she was adapting Shutterbabe as a TV series for NBC in 2014.[17] She was a consultant on Darren Star's Younger and is currently a staff writer on his new show Emily in Paris.[18] She has been interviewed by several news program including The Today Show and Good Morning America.[19]

In 2013, Copaken wrote an essay for The Nation detailing sexism she has encountered and observed in her career.[20] [21] [22] In November 2017 in Oprah.com, she published a 3,500-word account of her supracervical hysterectomy, adenomyosis and trachelectomy, and her subsequent recovery in Nepal.[23] In July 2018 in The Atlantic, in an essay pertaining to Roe V. Wade, she wrote that three of her five pregnancies were unplanned and that she had undergone two abortions.[24]

In 2019, her New York Times Modern Love essay, "When Cupid is a Prying Journalist,[25] " was adapted[26] into Episode 2 of Amazon's Modern Love series, with Catherine Keener playing Copaken. She also collaborated[27] with Tommy Siegel of Jukebox the Ghost. She is represented by literary agent Lisa Leshne.[28]

Personal life

She lived in Paris and Moscow before moving to New York City in 1992.[5] She became engaged to and married Paul Kogan in 1993. They have three children: son Jacob (born 1995); daughter Sasha (born 1997); and son Leo (born 2006).[29] In 2018, she and Kogan divorced; as she wrote in The Atlantic, they did so without legal assistance, at a cost of $626.50.[30]

Copaken wrote about being assaulted in her early twenties.[31] She wrote that she endured a number of random assaults and muggings, "[S]ome were quite scary".[32] [33] In March 2018 in The Atlantic, she wrote about The New York Observer editor Ken Kurson sexually harassing her.[34]

Copaken has also recounted that she was date raped on the night before her graduation. The next day she reported the incident to the university's health service, but was advised not to report her rape to police by her psychologist as the lengthy legal process might have affected her plans after graduation.[35] She wrote in The Atlantic, 30 years after the incident, that she had recently written to her assailant and that the assailant had called and apologized to her.

Works

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2023-01-31. DEBORAH COPAKEN. deborahcopaken.com.
  2. News: Engagements; Deborah E. Copaken, Paul M. Kogan . The New York Times . April 18, 1993.
  3. News: Richard Copaken Weds Marjorie Ann Schwartz . The New York Times . July 17, 1963.
  4. Web site: Q&A; Deborah Copaken Kogan on 'The Red Book'. Katharine. Herrup. April 22, 2012. Forward.
  5. Web site: Deporah Copaken: Bio . Official website.
  6. Web site: Obituaries: Richard D. Copaken . The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle . July 30, 2010 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20101125115501/http://kcjc.com/20081226792/obituaries/richard-d.-copaken.html . November 25, 2010 .
  7. Web site: Copaken . Deborah . What I Learned About Life at My 30th College Reunion . The Atlantic . en . 24 October 2018.
  8. Web site: Deporah Copaken: Photojournalism (List of selected works). Official website.
  9. Web site: Deborah Copaken's profile. Harper Collins Speaker Bureau.
  10. October 4, 2008 . Elle's Lettres: November . Elle.
  11. Kogan. Deborah Copaken. Stage Motherhood. 2021-06-12. The New Yorker. 26 February 2007 . en-US.
  12. News: Kogan. Deborah Copaken. 2007-04-15. La Vie en Rose, the Takeout Version. en-US. The New York Times. 2021-06-12. 0362-4331.
  13. News: Clark . Nick . April 12, 2013 . Women's Prize for Fiction nominee Deborah Copaken Kogan lifts the lid on sexism in publishing and the arts . The Independent .
  14. Web site: ABCs of Adulthood. 2021-06-12. Chronicle Books. en.
  15. Web site: The ABCs of Parenthood. 2021-06-12. Chronicle Books. en.
  16. Web site: Deporah Copaken: Essays/Journalism (List of selected works). Official website.
  17. Web site: How She Pivots To Relaunch Her Career. Forbes. Wendy. Sachs. February 16, 2017.
  18. Web site: THE SILVER WOMEN INTERVIEW Meet Deborah Copaken: Author-Photographer- Journalist. 2019-10-30. en-US. 2019-11-12.
  19. Web site: Deporah Copaken: TV Appearances/Video. Official website.
  20. Copaken . Deborah . April 29, 2013 . My So-Called 'Post-Feminist' Life in Arts and Letters . The Nation.
  21. News: Why Women's Books Have Terrible Titles . The Cut . Kat . Stoeffel . April 11, 2013.
  22. News: How to Win at the Women's Memoir Game . April 17, 2013 . The Cut. Michelle . Dean.
  23. Web site: How One Woman Found Healing in the Himalayas . Copaken . Deborah . Oprah.com . November 29, 2017 .
  24. Copaken . Deborah . July 31, 2018 . Three Children, Two Abortions. The Atlantic.
  25. News: When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist. Copaken. Deborah. 2015-11-26. The New York Times. 2019-11-12. en-US. 0362-4331.
  26. News: What She Learned From the One Who Got Away. Jones. Daniel. 2019-10-18. The New York Times. 2019-11-12. en-US. 0362-4331.
  27. Web site: Deborah Copaken and Tommy Siegel Featured On Song.Writer Podcast. BWW News Desk. BroadwayWorld.com. en. 2019-11-12.
  28. Web site: Deborah Copaken – the Leshne Agency .
  29. News: Tea and Uncertainty for a Busy Family . The New York Times . Constance . Rosenblum . January 28, 2010.
  30. Web site: The DIY Divorce. Deborah. Copaken. 12 February 2019. The Atlantic.
  31. Copaken . Deborah . September 25, 2009 . The Night After the Serial Rapist Was Caught . Slate.
  32. Web site: Copaken . Deborah . August 20, 2000 . Lives; King of the Mountain . The New York Times.
  33. Copaken . Deborah . September 21, 2018 . My Rapist Apologized . The Atlantic . 14 October 2018.
  34. Copaken . Deborah . March 9, 2018 . How to Lose Your Job From Sexual Harassment in 33 Easy Steps . The Atlantic.
  35. Web site: Gezari . Vanessa . January 14, 2001 . In Her Sights: A Photojournalist's Passionate Memoir . Chicago Tribune.
  36. News: Deborah Copaken never wanted to be 'Shutterbabe.' Her new memoir is on her terms. . en-US . Washington Post . 2022-05-23 . 0190-8286.
  37. Web site: Gabby . Deutch . 2021-07-30 . Deborah Copaken uses her 'Ladyparts' to talk gender, money and Judaism . 2022-05-23 . Jewish Insider . en-US.
  38. Web site: Ghert-Zand . Renee . Photojournalist dodges death to build herself back up after her body breaks down . 2022-05-23 . www.timesofisrael.com . en-US.

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