Adam Serwer


Adam Serwer is an American journalist. He is a staff writer at The Atlantic where his work focuses on politics. He has received awards from the National Association of Black Journalists, The Root, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Serwer was named a spring 2019 Shorenstein Center fellow. He received a 2019 Hillman Prize for Opinion & Analysis Journalism.

Life and career

Serwer was raised in Washington, D.C. His father, Daniel Serwer, was in the Foreign Service with the result that Serwer spent part of his childhood overseas. His mother, Jacquelyn Days Serwer, is the Chief Curator of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture. His father is Jewish and his mother is African American. He has one brother.
Serwer received his bachelor's degree from Vassar College and his master's degree from Columbia University's School of Journalism. Following graduate school, he was a writing fellow at The American Prospect. He later worked at Mother Jones, the Atlantic, MSNBC, The Washington Post, Jack and Jill Politics, and Salon. He began work at BuzzFeed News as the national editor in August 2014. Serwer was hired as a senior editor at The Atlantic on August 15, 2016. His work there has focused on white supremacy, race in America, and the Trump administration. Essays such as "The Nationalist's Delusion" and "White Nationalism's Deep American Roots" and "The Cruelty Is the Point" have been cited by other journalists in various outlets. He has also appeared on other media such as All Things Considered, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, In the Thick, and On My Mind with Diane Rehm to discuss his writing.
Serwer received a fellowship from the Shorenstein Center in 2019, for which he researched the historical role of African Americans and voting. He received the 2019 Hillman Prize for his work on the rise of Trump, Trumpism and America's history of racism.

Personal life

Serwer is married. He and his wife have one daughter. He practices Judaism.
He has multiple cats whom he frequently Tweets about and refers to as "the Garfields" because they are all orange.

Works