Vinson Cunningham

Vinson Cunningham joined The New Yorker as a staff writer in 2016 and has served as the magazine’s theatre critic since 2019. Cunningham writes about the intersection of culture and politics, including memorable pieces on Spike Lee and the January 6th insurrection. In 2020, he was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for his profile of the comedian Tracy Morgan.

Cunningham’s debut novel, Great Expectations, was inspired by his experiences working on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Using a political campaign as the narrative backbone, Cunningham writes about the singular experience of David, a young Black man who spends eighteen months supporting a Senator’s presidential bid. David meets an eclectic cast of characters—including cameos by well-known personalities like Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cornel West—who raise questions of history, art, race, religion, and fatherhood and challenge David to come to terms with his own identity as a young Black man and father in America.

As a speaker, Cunningham brings wit and intellect to the stage, captivating audiences with insightful remarks on politics, history, art, and culture. In personal craft talks about writing, Cunningham talks about his own writing process and the power of observation.

Cunningham’s essays, reviews, and profiles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Fader, Vulture, The Awl, and McSweeney’s. He has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the Yale School of Art, and Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he was awarded the 2021-2022 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.

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