Gabrielle Birkner

Journalist • Author • Content Strategist

Gabrielle Birkner is a Los Angeles-based journalist. She is an editor with a track record for producing timely, thoughtful coverage that centers the voices of those most impacted by news events. Gabi also has more than a decade of experience launching and growing editorial products at legacy news organizations and start-ups.

A graduate of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Gabi has served as features editor and fellowship director at Chalkbeat; managing editor at the Jewish Telegraphic Agency newswire, and digital director at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Cut, Vice, The Daily Beast, and many other publications. Some clips are here.

Gabi is the co-author of “Modern Loss: Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome” (HarperCollins, 2018). It’s a book of essays about living with loss — in all its messiness, melancholy, and occasional hilarity.

She talks nationally on topics such as young adult grief and building online communities. She has been a featured speaker at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Amazon HQ, the Miami Book Fair, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

One thing you wouldn’t know from reading her résumé: Paul Rudd DJ’d her bat mitzvah party. (No really, there’s proof).