Focused Observation and Writing Craft

Vinson Cunningham is a staff writer for The New Yorker. His novel, published in March 2024, is Great Expectations.

“I think the job is just paying a bunch of attention. If you're a person like me, where thoughts and worries are intruding on your consciousness all the time, it is a great relief to have something to just over-describe and over-pay-attention to—and kind of just give all of your latent, usually anxious attention to this one thing. That, to me, is a great joy.”

Show notes:

• @vcunningham
• vinson.nyc
• Cunningham on Longform
• Cunningham's New Yorker archive
• 04:00 "’The Suit’ at BAM" (Brooklyn Paper • Jan 2013)
• 04:00 "Label Maker: Edward Buchanan" (Nylon Guys • Mar 2015)
• 09:00 circlejerk.live
• 11:00 Jeremy O. Harris’ plays
• 11:00 "How Are Audiences Adapting to the Age of Virtual Theatre?" (New Yorker • Oct 2020)
• 18:00 "The Season of Russell Westbrook and a New Era in N.B.A. Fandom" (New Yorker • Apr 2017)
• 25:00 Cunningham's McSweeney’s archive
• 25:00 "The Flies in Kehinde Wiley’s Milk" (The Awl • Jun 2015)
• 25:00 "Can Black Art Ever Escape the Politics of Race?" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2015)
• 25:00 "How Chris Jackson is Building a Black Literary Movement" (New York Times Magazine • Feb 2016)
• 27:00 "Stephon Marbury Has His Own Story to Tell" (New Yorker • Apr 2020)
• 28:00 "The Playful, Political Art of Sanford Biggers" (New Yorker • Jan 2018)
• 29:00 WTF with Marc Maron
• 32:00 "Tracy Morgan Turns the Drama of His Life into Comedy" (New Yorker • May 2019)
• 36:00 Redd Foxx party albums
• 38:00 Alexandra Schwartz’ New Yorker archive
• 41:00 Simon Parkin on Longform
• 41:00 Adrian Chen on Longform
• 42:00 "The Many Lives of Steven Yeun" (Jay Caspian Kang • New York Times Magazine • Feb 2021)

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