HGSC Member Profile
Jonathan Vatner (AB '01, he/his)
What’s your background, in a couple quick sentences?
I grew up across the street from cows in Wayland, Massachusetts—a town that juts into the Mass Pike for a couple hundred yards. Even now, I hold my breath when passing that tiny stretch. Behind our house was an aqueduct trail, and my brothers and I would take walks or go running there. I loved reading fantasy novels and writing little stories and poems on looseleaf and paper plates. My enormous shaggy cat loved strangers and laps and scooting around our yard, chasing chipmunks.
What brought you to Harvard and what did you study?
My dad really wanted me to go to Harvard—he always wished he had gone. At the time, I didn’t have a strong opinion about it, so I applied early action. I studied Cognitive Neuroscience and was pre-med. In my senior year, I attended an info session about applying to med school. The advisors told us that the essay should honestly answer the question of why we wanted to become doctors. No one had ever asked me that before. In that moment, I realized I did not want to be a doctor.
I was arts editor of the Independent, and in my senior year, I wrote a weekly humor column. I was also a VP of HRTV, and I worked on and acted in a comedy show. The mix of creative writing and journalism I enjoyed at Harvard became the basis for a fruitful career.
Where are you now in your career?
I’m the managing editor of Hue, the magazine of the Fashion Institute of Technology. I have published two novels, Carnegie Hill and The Bridesmaids Union, with St. Martin’s Press. In my spare time, when I’m not reading or writing, I teach fiction writing to undergrads, graduate students, and others.
What are you excited for in 2025?
These days, it's hard to feel excited or hopeful about anything that might happen in this country or world, but I do look forward to travel. In July, I attended Sewanee, a writer’s conference funded by the estate of Tennessee Williams. I spent two weeks at the University of the South, learning with more than 100 other creative writers. I felt really nourished by all the creativity around me, and I made some (hopefully) lifelong friends.
What's one food you miss most from your Harvard days?
Savory baked tofu. It may have accumulated some punchlines among my friends, but I secretly adored it. I've never been vegetarian; I just love the faint sourness of tofu.
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