Vinson Cunningham
@vcunningham
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GREAT EXPECTATIONS, my debut novel, out from @hogarthbooks on March 12th, 2024. pre-order below. staff writer and theatre critic, @newyorker.
vinson.nyc/about
Joined May 2010
the actual encampment at Columbia—i'm here after teaching my final class of the semester—is downright tranquil, impossibly sweet. there is a "nut zone" for the safety of kids with allergies.
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plane seatmate just went straight from the Mean Girls musical into Zone of Interest. may our paths never cross again!.
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i love how Keith Lee acts like he works for unicef whenever he goes to a city and doesn't like the food.
Keith Lee says he visited about 12 restaurants in the DC area but made a personal decision not to post most of them. He doesn’t feel his videos would be “constructive”
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whatever you think of the "fascism" debate, i'd love to see you come up with an alternate word for this level of smug, brazen, intellect-defying, surreal public dishonesty.
Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard shows the chains used to secure Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. "This is not what students bring to school. This is what professionals bring to campuses and universities."
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a truly thrilling and surprising honor, for which i'm so grateful. special thanks to all of my friends and colleagues at @NewYorker, especially my brilliant, kind, patient theatre editor Shauna Lyon. just one more bit of encouragement to keep going.
Vinson Cunningham, a theatre critic at The @NewYorker, has been named winner of the 2021-22 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. Congratulations! The award is administered by @EnglishCornell. @vcunningham. #theatre
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amazed by the behavior of these "administrators." so many of them seem to have total—weirdly violent?—contempt for the kids upon whom their high salaries depend.
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just an incredible way to treat somebody who wins you awards, embodies nothing but the highest standards and ideals, minds her business and hurts nobody, has lent you her coolness and charisma for her entire adult life, etc. infuriating.
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new york's political leadership encapsulated: cynical and dishonest BUT ALSO inattentive and quite dim.
Last night, I mistakenly voted NO on an appropriations amendment that would allow veterans to access state medical marijuana programs. I want to set the record straight: I strongly support this amendment.
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it's a sign of divine balance, even justice, that one of the most graceful people on the planet looks like this when he dances.
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such an honor to be a finalist for the pulitzer prize in criticism. i love my work: being celebrated for it is a very nice bonus on top of a total privilege. thanks to the jury—i know from experience that theirs is a basically impossible task.
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hip hop has completed its transformation into classic rock.
HOLY SHIT, my man Rep. Hakeem Jeffries actually schooled these fools alphabetically!👏👏👏
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"model is 6'5" and wearing a small" well good for him.
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ants ain't the only ones marching.
Musician Dave Matthews protesting against Netanyahus visit: "I'm ashamed that my tax dollars are going to the brutalising of an entire people"
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disgusting.
What happens if New Yorkers do not want their bags checked by the national Guard? . “Then go home,” @GovKathyHochul says on @fox5ny “You’re not taking the subway.”
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i survived being a bespectacled black kid in the 90s and @NewYorker has repaid me by allowing me to write about Urkel. INDULGE
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i don't have much to say about 2023 except that it was quite easily the worst year of my life. the best things i wrote were speeches for funerals. i miss my wife. but I was glad to have finished this piece about @jeremyoharris:
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what happens when a young artist's wildest dreams come true but then the world falls apart? that's the question behind my profile of Jeremy O. Harris—several slices of the playwright's life over the past three years, in this week's @NewYorker style issue.
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i wrote an essay for Christmas. it's about darkness and light, high peaks and low depths, the crooked and the straight—a year of surprises. a little token to stuff your stocking. link's in the next tweet.
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here's the essay i wrote for the 30th anniversary @Criterion edition of DO THE RIGHT THING. still an honor to have done it.
Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing was released in theaters on this day 35 years ago . “Yo! Hold up! Time out! Time out!”
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i'm on the well-worn path from stage to screen! news, sports, "shows" fictional and non-, music videos, ads, on and on. very excited for this new challenge.
New beat for @vcunningham! He'll be writing about "TV" but thinking about it in an expansive way--what we watch on our screens.
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even if aliens exist they are not as cool as whales.
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Today's the big day. I can't believe it, really, for so many reasons. All I can say is that Great Expectations is the best thing I've written so far, and I'm so happy to get to share it with you. Get it here, or at a bookstore near you:
My debut novel, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, comes out in just one month, on March 12th. To mark the milestone, I'm happy to share this brand-new trailer. Please share it—and, most importantly, pre-order GE and make sure you get it bright and early on launch day:
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new york's hottest club is the nice dry cool parish where i sit among sweet-faced haitian ladies and we all feebly sing.
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i brought my "abundance mind-set," my guilty eating, my wan attempts to quit boozing, and much more to this week's Grub Street Diet. thanks, @grubstreet.
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"all praise be to Allah in every situation!!!" . the death penalty is an affront against heaven.
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i wrote about the rock-headed new Daily Wire D.E.I.-documentary, "Am I Racist"
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change we can believe in.
It will be interesting to learn how many of those arrested in Hamilton Hall at Columbia are actually students.
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leading a class on criticism—on paying excruciating attention to everything—really brings the "teaching outfit" problem to the fore.
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My debut novel, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, comes out in just one month, on March 12th. To mark the milestone, I'm happy to share this brand-new trailer. Please share it—and, most importantly, pre-order GE and make sure you get it bright and early on launch day:
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it's called style.
So many em dashes!
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"just a splash" means nothing to the coffee establishment in this squalid city.
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if you think biden's main problem is cornel west you are a fool.
Either Cornel West is oblivious to the damage his presidential run may cause, or he knows exactly what he’s doing and doesn’t care about the consequences. It’s hard to say which would be more damning.
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happy election day and shout out to my mom, who taught me how to vote, and who is working the polls today ❤️🔥
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in case you were wondering what our other mayors were like.
JUST IN: Rudy Giuliani has been officially disbarred in Washington, D.C. He had been suspended since his disciplinary proceedings last year.
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i wrote about "Fantasmas," Julio Torres' downbeat, digressive, brilliantly allegorical new show on HBO.
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inspired by kendrick: somebody insult me so i can finish my next book real quick.
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be like Brandon and read my book very soon!
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for next week's @NewYorker i wrote about the uniquely telegenic NBA, the constant search for a new hoops star, and the absence of true protagonism in this year's Finals. INDULGE:
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post headline writers. this nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
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this is the kind of close reading our sick world needs.
In the middle of Vinson Cunningham’s Great Expectations a group of friends watch a Pistons/Celtics game at a New Hampshire bar. Pretty sure it’s this one, based on Cunningham’s description. Pretty cool!
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starting next Thursday, i'll be joining my friends @Alex_Lily & @frynaomifry to launch Critics at Large, a weekly @NewYorker podcast on culture and the arts. a fun time guaranteed—subscribe now so you don't miss an ep.
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Georgia always doing the most on its own behalf. The Brooklyn of states. Can't hate unfortunately.
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prolonged and possibly ruinous rap beef, the knicks are incredible, i happen to be in seattle—if the 90s weren't already back they sure the hell are now.
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the last thing i wrote during so-called dry January was this piece about drinking too much.
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Joel doesn't need me to say this, but this is insanity. what the hell is this business supposed to be about if this happens to a man this talented (and kind and decent and cool and etc)? their loss.
Hey folks, I was one of 4 people laid off by Slate & today will be my last day. Obviously, I’ll be looking for work. Hit me at joelanderson12@gmail.com. Apologies in advance if it takes a while to respond; I just now tested positive for covid and I’m gassed. Thx for the support!.
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i want to commend Alvin Bragg, a man with an exceedingly stressful job, for still having a hairline this defined.
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i will help in the fight against fascism, climate disaster, nuclear chaos, aliens, etc. but if the whales want this planet back i surrender in advance.
Orcas have taken to slamming their [up to 18,000 pound] bodies into ships, capsizing them—totally new behavior. Orca moms have even been proactive in teaching the pod’s calves the skill, encouraging practice on smaller boats💀. Expect more of this from other animals moving fwd.
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this was so much fun. @KnowYrEnemyPod is one of my favorite podcasts, and its hosts are two of my favorite people. i think it shows in the conversation. ❤️🔥.
New @KnowYrEnemyPod: we talked to @vcunningham about his excellent novel, "Great Expectations," political theater, and coming of age during Obama '08. Plus: Isherwood, Bellow, Wills, Ellison, Marilynne Robinson, Paul Pierce, and Kamala Harris. Let's go.
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for next week's @NewYorker i wrote about Vince McMahon, storytelling pro-wrestling style, and America's "Attitude Era."
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i wrote about "An Enemy of the People," those enviro-protests i somehow missed, Amy Herzog's Ibsenism and the gently troubling poems of Tomas Tranströmer, the allure of Jeremy Strong, and the inconvenience of telling the truth.
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i wrote about Snoop Dogg on NBC and other fun American effusions at the Paris Olympics. INDULGE:
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for this week's @NewYorker, i lived the city-kid dream of writing a short ode to John Turturro. that and more in my review of the new stage adaptation of Philip Roth's "Sabbath's Theater."
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if you see me smoking a cigarette tomorrow no you didn't.
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when you say American soft power all I see is stephen curry threes.
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you too can receive this beautiful book in two short, short weeks. preorder here:
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i don't have many "lifelong dreams" but speaking about my novel at the Schomburg comes pretty close. i hope you'll come on 6/15. ❤️🔥.
Saturday, 6/15 at 11 AM: Join us for #SchomLitFest2024! Featured authors include Donovan X Ramsey, Diane Richardson, Elizabeth Acevedo, Vinson Cunningham, and B. Michael. #SchomburgCenter.
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i was told that the rapture would come but not that it would look this stupid
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for this week's @NewYorker, i wrote about the ever-evolving public persona of Kamala Harris.
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very grateful for this perceptive, generous review review from @magiciansbook at @slate. GREAT EXPECTATIONS is out next Tuesday: exactly a week!.
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i wrote about vernacular photography, leisurely evil, what will become of all our brutal images, and the new play "Here There Are Blueberries."
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for this week's Goings On i wrote very briefly—for now, at least—about my favorite sports TV show. some other stuff too.
I’m genuinely appreciate @FTFonFS1 being included in the latest @NewYorker newsletter but it’s genuinely hurtful that the writer thinks Don, Dawn, Don Sr., & Don Jr. are fake people. Whatever happened to that famous fact-checking department???
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dudes outside amid the orange, smoking cigarettes—definition of "got that dawg in em".
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yet again, mailman expresses his low opinion of the magazine
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disgusting.
Absolutely insane footage of the NYPD entering Columbia University. It’s endless.
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wrote two pieces earlier this year arguing against this paranoid anthropology-turned-craft-truism . //
Is it true that in drama (and life?) people only speak to get something from each other? And is that refreshing honesty or the most depressing thing ever.
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"Cunningham’s sentences are so perfectly balanced you feel you could rap them with a stick and they would ring like crystal.". thank you, @constancegrady.
The best books of the year (so far)
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if i ever reach a career milestone in the middle of doing my job, you can be sure that i will get up and be done for the day.
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on Wednesday March 13th i'll be at Greenlight Bookstore—hometown icon—discussing my novel Great Expectations with my beloved friend and colleague @dstfelix. you can register and pre-order the book now! INDULGE:
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insane.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House censures Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her rhetoric about Israel, rebuking the only Palestinian American in Congress.
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for this week's @NewYorker i wrote about faith and love in three plays: "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," "Waiting for Godot," and the new show "Scene Partners." INDULGE:
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today i signed a book for a dog? shout out to you, Asher, wherever you are
if you're in Prospect Park this afternoon, i'll be signing *free* copies of Great Expectations as part of Afropunk Brooklyn, at 3pm. find me at the @penguinrandom booth, near the Bandshell. come hang!.
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went on @talkeasypod w/ @SamFragoso to chat about politics, citizenship, God, faith, fate, death, and birth—plus my novel Great Expectations, which brings lots of those topics into closer communion. check us out:
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those familiar with my monday morning routine may be interested to know that i have already managed to spill green juice on my white jeans, if you see me no you didn't
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for me the sacred heart will always be the most metal, most touching religious image. it perplexes me, yet on a level beneath language of course i understand. whenever i use this emoji i think of christ with his burning bush of a heart. happy feast day to all who celebrate.
❤️🔥.
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the voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground.
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for next week's @NewYorker i wrote about the "affinity comedy" of Joe Rogan and others whose definition of stand-up i just can't understand—plus found some solace in the very funny Langston Kerman.
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in closing—the most autobiographical paragraph i wrote this year was hidden in a review of a production of Hamlet:
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feels like this'll be remembered—perhaps grouped with last year—as an incredibly important transitional year in the history of the league. exciting!.
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here's a lovely review—somehow panoramic and forensic at once—of GREAT EXPECTATIONS, by .@lequincampe for @latimes. i especially appreciate its answer to the "why not memoir" question.
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i might need to keep a file of people making this joke about my novel's faintly familiar title. or—more seriously—start working on an essay about the ordeal of titling. in the meantime, please pre-order GREAT EXPECTATIONS!
Releasing my debut novel “Harry Potter” soon, please pre-order.
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woke up in a deep sweat and found myself somehow on letterboxd
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