[2][3] Reed graduated from the Missouri School of Journalism, with a BA in news writing and photojournalism, and from Ohio State University with a MA, and where she was a 1996 Kiplinger Fellow.
Her work has appeared in Mother Jones, U.S. News & World Report, The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Salon, and the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
[10] Reed left the Chicago Sun-Times in 2008, unable to fulfill her promise to change the editorial stance from conservative to progressive, having previously vowed to '"return the paper to its "liberal, working-class roots" and to add "seats to our editorial board so that board members ... reflect [Chicago's] diversity.
"'[11][12] In 2018, she won the Chicago Writers Book of the Year award, for Poison Girls, in the traditional fictional category.
[14][15][16] Reed brought the board members to federal court in June 2015, but she later pulled out from the case when the judge denied a preliminary injunction that would have reinstated her as adviser.