Abigail Covington

Abigail Covington is a writer and  contributing editor at Esquire magazine. Her journalism, essays, and criticism have appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, Slate, The Nation, Them, Oxford American, and Pitchfork. Her 2016 article for Oxford American's annual music issue, titled "When the Fire Broke Out," was included in The Best American Essays 2016. Longreads selected her 2019 feature for the Delacorte Review, titled “What Do We Do With Robert E. Lee?” as a Story of the Week. Her 2023 investigation into book banning in North Dakota was nominated for an Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award.

In her decade working in media and publishing, Abigail has been a copy editor for a major metropolitan newspaper, the managing editor of a trade publication, the associate editor of a small, literary journal, and the features editor of a few music blogs that no longer exist. She's also moderated panels at film festivals, hosted post-screening QAs with actors and directors, and provided on-air cultural commentary for a number of podcasts and documentaries. 

Abigail has a BA in Creative Writing and Politics from the College of William and Mary and an MA in Journalism from Columbia University, where she was awarded a narrative nonfiction fellowship by the Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism. Originally from North Carolina, she now lives in Brooklyn.