Vivian Gornick

Vivian Gornick writes essays, criticism, and memoir. Her newest book is Unfinished Business: Notes of a Chronic Re-reader.

Latest

  1. The Writer Who Understood Aloneness

    Mavis Gallant’s short stories are about people, especially women, who prefer to live on the social margins. I cherish one of them most of all.

    A photo-illustration showing Mavis Gallant
    Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: Neville Elder / Corbis / Getty.
  2. On the Jury

    Had the young black been caught with a loaded revolver? Or was the gun planted by the white policeman who made the arrest? The judge asked jurors to reason from the evidence; no one counted on the implacable weight of racial hostility.