Suzanne Braun Levine is a writer, editor and nationally recognized authority on women and family issues, and media. She chronicled and fostered change in women’s lives as the first editor of Ms. magazine and today as a contributing editor of More magazine. She is a lecturer, appears frequently on television, and is an advisor to several women’s and media groups, and organizations dealing with midlife issues

She has defined a new stage of life – Women in Second Adulthood – and reports on the ongoing changes in women’s lives in her books and on her website www.suzannebraunlevine.com.

Her latest book, FIFTY IS THE NEW FIFTY: 10 LIFE LESSONS FOR WOMEN IN SECOND ADULTHOOD (Viking, April 2009) continues the conversation Suzanne began with INVENTING THE REST OF OUR LIVES (Viking, June 2005). That groundbreaking book ignited a national conversation about women in second adulthood – the vibrant and empowering new stage of life that more than 37 million women are defining by living it.

The Plume (a division of Penguin/Viking US) paperback edition will released on March 30, 2010.

Her monthly column, “Inventing the Rest of My Life,” appears on the More magazine website. She is a frequent contributor to other sites, including: http://www.feistysideofifty.com, http://www.feminist.com, http://www.womensmediacenter.com and www.vibrantnation.com. Suzanne is currently at work on her new book about how women in second adulthood are “redefining and making changes in the way we love, whom we love, and how we define intimacy, devotion, passion and commitment.”

In 2007, she co-authored (with editor and author, Mary Thom) BELLA ABZUG: How One Tough Broad from the Bronx Fought Jim Crow and Joe McCarthy, Pissed off Jimmy Carter, Battled for the Rights of Women and Workers, Rallied Against War and for the Planet, and Shook Up Politics Along the Way, a widely acclaimed oral history of the Congresswoman from New York (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007).

Levine’s essay on the politics of family life – “Parenting: A New Social Contract” – is included in SISTERHOOD IS FOREVER, edited by Robin Morgan (Atria Books, 2003). Other essays have appeared in national publications, including, Newsweek, TV Guide, The Nation, Parenting and O: The Oprah magazine as well as More.. An article on the conflict between younger and older women became the basis for a one-hour “Oprah” television show and was re-broadcast frequently.

Her book on how men are changing the role of fatherhood, FATHER COURAGE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN MEN PUT FAMILY FIRST (Harcourt, April 2000) gave voice to an “unsung revolution” of fathers trying to co-parent in a society that discourages men from doing so.

She was the editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, the prestigious monitor of media matters, from 1989 to 1997.  Her essay “A News Consumer’s Bill of Rights” is included in CONSUMING DESIRES (Island Press, 1999) edited by Roger Rosenblatt.

From its founding in 1972 to 1988, Suzanne edited Ms. magazine, the groundbreaking feminist publication which popularized the designation of Ms. for women, introduced a new kind of personal reporting and political activism in its pages. The magazine received worldwide recognition for its coverage of previously unreported issues that concerned women, from domestic violence, rape, women’s health, equal pay and access to credit, the arts, national and international politics and social policies.

While at Ms., Levine developed and produced the Peabody-Award winning television special: “She’s Nobody’s Baby: A History of American Women in the 20th Century,” narrated by Marlo Thomas and Alan Alda (HBO, 1981).  A book based on the television special was written by Susan Dworkin and edited by Levine (A Fireside Book, Simon & Schuster, 1983). She also conceived and co-edited with Harriet Lyons, A DECADE OF WOMEN: A Ms. History of the Seventies in Words and Pictures (Putnam, 1980).

She was also the editor of the 30th Anniversary edition of the magazine. In 2004, she was honored by the magazine as a “Ms. Woman of the Year.”

She has appeared on national television programs, including “Oprah,” “Good morning America,” “Today” and “Charlie Rose” as well as numerous national and local radio shows. She is on the Advisory Boards of The Transition Network, POZ magazine and poz.com (the leading US magazine and website about HIV/AIDS), the Women’s Media Center and AARP’s Women Leadership Circle.

In 2009, Suzanne joined the Board of Civic Ventures (www.civicverntures.org) founded in 1998 by Marc Freedman, which works to define the second half of adult life as a time of individual and social renewal through an inventive program portfolio, original research, strategic alliances, and the power of people’s own life stories.  She is also on the Board of the Ms. Foundation for Education and Communication.

She has received numerous honors and taught journalism at several universities. In 1989 she was a fellow at the Freedom Forum.

Suzanne began her magazine journalism career as an editor and reporter for Seattle, Mademoiselle, McCall’s and Sexual Behavior magazines after graduating with honors from Harvard University (1963). The papers from her years at Ms. are at the University of Missouri as part of the National Women and Media Collection.

She lives in New York with her husband Robert F. Levine, an attorney. They have two adult children.

Suzanne Braun Levine – portraits