Dominique Browning

The former editor-in-chief of House & Garden, and the first woman to break the glass ceiling at Newsweek, Dominique Browning is the author of three memoirs: Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness (Atlas & Co., 2010); Paths of Desire: the Passion of a Suburban Gardener; and Around the House and In the Garden: a Memoir of Heartbreak, Healing, and Home Improvement. Browning also produced four books under the House & Garden brand: The House & Garden Book of Style, The Well-Lived Life, Gardens of Paradise, House of Worship.

Slow Love: How I Lost My Job, Put on My Pajamas, and Found Happiness is about reinventing oneself after a life collapse and learning to engage in the world in a meaningful way: “I was forced to slow down when I lost my job—and the journey of grieving and recovery is what my book is about. Slow living led me to falling in love with the world, experiencing what I think of as slow love.” Maira Kalman states, “There cannot be a person on earth who does not sometimes wonder what the purpose of their life is. Dominique Browning was lucky enough to get fired, so she had time to find out who she was or might be. And we are lucky that she was able to write (often with great humor) about her loss, her loves, her pajamas and ultimately, her return to life.” Browning has since started a blog site, SlowLoveLife.com, inspired by Slow Love, where she continues the conversation about speed bumps: “the ones that surprise and challenge us, and the ones we put there ourselves, with purposefulness.” The site is dedicated to learning how to appreciate the beauty of everyday moments—and taking time to share them with one another.

An environmental advocate, Browning writes a monthly column about environmental issues for the Environmental Defense Fund website entitled “Personal Nature: Dominique Browning’s distinctive take on all things environmental”. As Browning describes, “It is only a small leap from caring about what’s going on in a garden to caring about what’s going on in the larger environment….I see how we disconnect, want to change the subject, turn back to tending our small patches of earth. We want to be able to take the health of our planet for granted. But environmental issues are hitting the very place we want to feel safest: home. Home ought to be a sacred place of retreat, rest, and peace. It won’t continue to be if we turn our backs on the world. This new column was born in the spirit of paying attention, talking about what we can do now. It isn’t enough to turn off the lights and turn down the thermostat—all those tiny, individual actions are necessary, but not sufficient. We have to turn to leaders with the vision and muscle to make change.” Through the EDF, Browning has founded Mom’s Clean Air Force, an organization to engage mothers on air pollution as a health issue, rather than an environmental issue.

A writer, editor, and consultant in the newspaper and magazine fields until November 2007, Browning was the editor-in-chief of House & Garden, a magazine of 950,000 readers. Browning began her career in 1977 working at Savvy and American Photographer magazines. In 1979 she became an associate literary editor at Esquire magazine. She then became the executive editor of Texas Monthly based in Austin, Texas. She went on to break the glass ceiling at Newsweek, becoming the first woman at any news magazine to be appointed an assistant managing editor. Browning left journalism for several years to be a founding partner of Edison Schools, a company set up to privately manage public schools. She went to Mirabella magazine as editor-in-chief before joining Conde Nast. Browning has worked with and written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine, O, the Oprah magazine, Departures, Food & Wine, Travel & Leisure, Body + Soul, Wired and On Topic, among others.

Browning graduated from Wesleyan University in 1977 with a major in Philosophy, Literature, and History. She is a classically trained pianist and also performed with Wesleyan’s Javanese Gamelan orchestra. She is the mother of two sons and lives in New York and Rhode Island.