Tomasky was born and raised in Morgantown, West Virginia. He attended West Virginia University as an undergraduate and then studied political science in graduate school at New York University. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Harper's Weekly, The Nation, The Village Voice, The New York Review of Books, Dissent, Lingua Franca, George, and GQ. He lives with his wife (Sarah) and daughter (Margot Julianna Kerr Tomasky, born July 6, 2010) in Silver Spring, Maryland.

From 1995 to 2002, Tomasky was a columnist at New York, where he wrote the "City Politic" column. He was later executive editor of The American Prospect, and remains a contributing editor. On October 23, 2007 Guardian America was launched with Tomasky as its editor. On March 3, 2009 he replaced Kenneth Baer as editor of U.S. political journal Democracy, at which time his title at The Guardian changed to editor-at-large.

Tomasky is the author of Left for Dead: The Life, Death, and Possible Resurrection of Progressive Politics in America (1996), a study of the intellectual collapse of the American left, and of Hillary's Turn: Inside Her Improbable, Victorious Senate Campaign (2001), a chronicle of Hillary Clinton's successful election to the Senate in 2000.

Books

• Left for Dead: The Life, Death, and Possible Resurrection of Progressive Politics in America, Michael Tomasky, Free Press, June 10, 1996, ISBN 978-0684827506
• Hillary's Turn: Inside Her Improbable, Victorious Senate Campaign, Michael Tomasky, Free Press, February 15, 2001, ISBN 978-0684873022