Rose Friedman Dies: NPR Arts Editor & ‘Books We Love’ Co-Creator Was 38

Rose Friedman, an NPR editor and reporter who shaped the public radio network’s arts & culture coverage and co-created its popular reading guide Books We Love, died of cancer Thursday, September 17, at her home in New York City. She was 38.

Her death was announced on-air by NPR’s Elizabeth Blair, who called Friedman one of the outlet’s finest journalists.

In an obituary and tribute posted on NPR’s website, Blair said, “Rose Friedman was an editor to the end. She said she wanted the second line of her obituary to acknowledge her role as a shop steward for SAG-AFTRA, the union that represents NPR’s editorial workers. She wanted the line to say that her ‘proudest achievement’ was helping convince NPR to increase its paid parental leave.”

Friedman joined NPR as an editorial assistant in her early 20s in 2010. She later served as an editor and reporter, becoming deeply sourced in the publishing industry, editing book reviews and features and writing appreciations of book world personalities such as author Herman Wouk and editor Sonny Mehta.

She co-created what was initially called the Book Concierge, later renamed Books We Love. Reading over hundreds of titles nominated by NPR staff and critics, Friedman narrowed the list to the popular reader’s guide.

“She was voracious,” novelist Meg Wolitzer, who worked with Friedman on a number of NPR reviews and features, said to NPR. “What a gifted, delightful, brilliant, deeply kind person. And I would say a true enthusiast. I got so much working with Rose.”

Raised in Newton, Mass., Friedman is survived by her partner Andrew Anastasi, two children, parents and two sisters.