Mary Gaitskill’s Followers (1,395)

Mary Gaitskill

Born

in Lexington, Kentucky, The United States

November 11, 1954

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories

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Mary Gaitskill 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. ...more

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Mary Gaitskill’s books

Average rating: 3.69 · 50,863 ratings · 6,368 reviews · 64 distinct works • Similar authors

	Bad Behavior 3.87 avg rating — 12,854 ratings — published 1988 — 45 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Veronica 3.43 avg rating — 7,275 ratings — published 2005	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Is Pleasure: A Story 3.46 avg rating — 6,998 ratings — published 2019 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mare 3.67 avg rating — 5,067 ratings — published 2015 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Because They Wanted To: Stories 3.92 avg rating — 2,620 ratings — published 1997 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Two Girls, Fat and Thin 3.69 avg rating — 2,385 ratings — published 1991 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bear Witness 3.19 avg rating — 2,191 ratings — published 2020 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lost Cat 4.08 avg rating — 1,602 ratings — published 2014 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Don't Cry 3.63 avg rating — 1,600 ratings — published 2009 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Somebody with a Little Hammer: Essays 3.77 avg rating — 650 ratings — published 2017 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Mary Gaitskill (?)

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

tags: music

1406 likes

“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

137 likes

“At times she had thought that this was the only kind of connection you could have with people—intense, inexplicable and ultimately incomplete.”
― Mary Gaitskill, Bad Behavior

tags: human-connection, human-interaction

47 likes

See all Mary Gaitskill's quotes »

Polls

Baileys Prize long list. Which ones would you like us to read together?

The Power by Naomi Alderman

3 votes, 14.3%

Little Deaths by Emma Flint

3 votes, 14.3%

The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O'Neill

3 votes, 14.3%

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

3 votes, 14.3%

The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain

3 votes, 14.3%

The Mare by Mary Gaitskill

2 votes, 9.5%

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

1 vote, 4.8%

Hag-Seed: The Tempest Retold by Margaret Atwood

1 vote, 4.8%

The Lesser Bohemians by Eimear McBride

1 vote, 4.8%

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

1 vote, 4.8%

The Dark Circle by Linda Grant

0 votes, 0.0%

Midwinter by Fiona Melrose

0 votes, 0.0%

The Sport of Kings by C.E. Morgan

0 votes, 0.0%

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso

0 votes, 0.0%

First Love by Gwendoline Riley

0 votes, 0.0%

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien

0 votes, 0.0%

21 total votes

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