One of contemporary America’s most acute critics and insightful memoirists, Vivian Gornick (The Odd Woman and the City) has spent her writing career extracting meaning from the culture around her: from the novels of D.H. Lawrence to the tight community of mid 20th century New York socialists, from the mundane and banal aspects of sexual liberation to the unraveling of key friendships in her life. In a collection of essays both old and new, Taking A Long Look: Essays on Culture, Literature and Feminism in Our Time, Gornick illuminates the path of understanding oneself and one’s own history as a difficult and painful one. Along with reflections  on the work of Joan Didion, Philip Roth, Rachel Carson and other stalwarts of 20th century writing, the collection includes some of Gornick’s most provocative and original Village Voice pieces that tracked the burgeoning feminist movement in the New York of the 1960s and 1970s.

Vivian Gornick talks with Anakana Schofield (Bina) about taking a long look back at the steps that got us to where we are.

About this event's guests:
Vivian Gornick
Anakana Schofield

Photo of author is courtesy of Mitch Bach.

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Vivian Gornick: Taking A Long Look