Mary Gaitskill

Author profile

born

November 11, 1954 in Lexington, Kentucky, The United States

gender

female

About this author

Mary Gaitskill (born November 11, 1954, in Lexington, Kentucky) is an American author of essays, short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories (1993 and 2006), and The O. Henry Prize Stories (1998). She married writer Peter Trachtenberg in 2001. As of 2005, she lived in New York City; Gaitskill has previously lived in Toronto, San Francisco, and Marin County, CA, as well as attending the University of Michigan where she earned her B.A. and won a Hopwood Award. Gaitskill has recounted (in her essay "Revelation") becoming a born-again Christian at age 21 but lapsing after six months.

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Books by Mary Gaitskill

Average rating: 3.66 · 8,084 ratings · 1,107 reviews · 19 distinct works

	Bad Behavior 3.97 avg rating — 1,830 ratings — published 1988 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Veronica 3.30 avg rating — 2,436 ratings — published 2005 — 8 editions	My rating:
	Because They Wanted To by Mary Gaitskill, Sam Potts (Designed by) 3.90 avg rating — 861 ratings — published 1997 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Two Girls, Fat and Thin 3.54 avg rating — 876 ratings — published 1991 — 10 editions	My rating:
	Don't Cry 3.50 avg rating — 622 ratings — published 2009 — 5 editions	My rating:
	Best New American Voices 2009 by Mary Gaitskill (Editor), John Kulka (Series Editor), Natalie Danford (Series Editor) 3.22 avg rating — 55 ratings — published 2008	My rating:
	Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 by Mary Gaitskill (Editor), Daphne Carr 3.42 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2006 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Open City by Mary Gaitskill, Jeff Koons 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1992	My rating:
	Mary Gaitskill Nonfiction 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating:
	Bleak House by Charles Dickens, Mary Gaitskill (Introduction), Hablot Knight Browne (Illustrator) 3.95 avg rating — 19,807 ratings — published 1853 — 14 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Mary Gaitskill

“My ambition was to live like music.”
― Mary Gaitskill

tags: music

23 people liked it

“Writing is.... being able to take something whole and fiercely alive that exists inside you in some unknowable combination of thought, feeling, physicality, and spirit, and to then store it like a genie in tense, tiny black symbols on a calm white page. If the wrong reader comes across the words, they will remain just words. But for the right readers, your vision blooms off the page and is absorbed into their minds like smoke, where it will re-form, whole and alive, fully adapted to its new environment.”
― Mary Gaitskill

tags: authors , inspiration , readers , vision , writing

13 people liked it

“Of course there’s something there; unfortunately, there’s always something ‘there.’ Something you will one day be sorry you saw.”
― Mary Gaitskill, Veronica

9 people liked it

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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Listomania: Mary Gaitskill's Top Ten	1	48	Aug 14, 2009 08:24am
Cover to Cover Ch...: Dot's booklist 2011	164	53	Dec 30, 2011 08:50pm
Serious About Books: Titles With Women's Names	105	20	Feb 01, 2012 03:49pm
What's so terrible about having sex before marriage?	4434	4512	Mar 20, 2012 06:15am
Crazy Challenge C...: Tatum's Reading and Challenge List	49	45	Mar 24, 2012 08:10am
Reading with Style: 20.10 - Liz M's task - It's academic	43	47	Apr 17, 2012 09:58am
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