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Megan Ratner is a freelance writer and critic. A former contributing editor to Film Quarterly, her work has appeared in Film Comment, Cineaste,  frieze,  Filmmaker,  Senses of Cinema, Bright Lights Film Journal, Art on Paper, Black Book, New York Woman, Art/Text, and Border Crossings, among other publications. 

Her Come Out Notebook was the sole essay in Glenn Ligon: Come Out (Ridinghouse, 2014). Her work has been anthologized in Memory (Whitechapel: Documents in Contemporary Art Series, 2012), edited by Ian Farr; John Sayles: Interviews (University of Mississippi, 1999), edited by Diane Carson; Movies: City Secrets Movies: The Ultimate Insider’s Guide, edited by Robert Kahn and City Secrets: Books: The Essential Insider’s Guide, edited by Mark Strand, (both published by Fang Duff Kahn, 2009). 

In 2011, she served on the jury of the inaugural Dialogue of Cultures International Film Festival in New York City.  She co-programmed a series on Italian postwar cinema at the American Academy in Rome and lectured on critical writing at New York University and Claremont College.  She has given talks at Dartmouth and Roger Williams College.  In addition to her critical writing, she has worked extensively in publishing in a variety of capacities.  She held editorial staff positions at Antaeus/the Ecco Press; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; and the German Information Center.  On her own and in collaboration, she organized reading series at the Triangle Theater and the Nicholas Davies Gallery; and she gave readings at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New York City Writers Room, and at benefits for Pierogi Press and Global City Review. 

Born in Boulder, Colorado, she spent much of her youth abroad. She began school in Frankfurt, Germany, followed by nine different schools  (in three different languages) in Freiburg, Germany, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Massachusetts and California. Her family lived and traveled throughout Europe, with longer stays in Crete, Spain and Portugal, and six entire summers in Italy.  As a result, she has excellent German, with proficiency in Italian and French.  Prior to her graduation from Reed College, she lived in Brazil and traveled widely in South America.  Based in New York City, she spent extended periods in Ireland, Germany, and, on several fortunate occasions, in Rome, the Marches and the Abruzzi, Italy.