Rachel Aviv

Rachel Aviv
Aviv at the 2022 National Book Festival
Born1982 (ages 43-44)
Detroit, Michigan, United States
EducationBrown University (BA)
Columbia University (MFA)
OccupationWriter
Notable workStrangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us (2022)
You Won't Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters (2026)
AwardsGeorge Folk Award Award (2024)
National Magazine Award for Profile Writing (2022)

Rachel Aviv (born 1982) is an American journalist, author, and a staff writer at The New Yorker.

Her book Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us was published in 2022. Her sophomore essay collection, You Won't Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters was released in 2026.

Aviv frequently writes about psychiatry and medical ethics. Tablet has referred to Aviv as "Janet Malcolm’s successor."

Early life

Aviv was raised in eastern Michigan. Her parents are divorced. When she was six, she was admitted to the Children's Hospital of Michigan where she received six weeks of treatment for anorexia nervosa. She writes about the experience in the first chapter of her book Strangers to Ourselves. She was thought to be the youngest anorexia patient in the country. Her symptoms subsided after several months of treatment.

She attended the private school Cranbrook-Kingswood, where she was co-captain of the girls' tennis team. She graduated with a BA from Brown University in 2004, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Non-Fiction Writing from Columbia University.

Career

Aviv won a 2020 Whiting Foundation nonfiction grant and a 2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award for Nonfiction. She has investigated Teen Challenge, guardianship abuse, family courts, and the possible innocence of convicted nurse Lucy Letby. She has won a National Magazine Award and a George Polk Award. and was a finalist for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.

In 2022, her book Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Strangers to Ourselves was selected for The New York Times's "10 Best Books of 2022" list. The book was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism.

Her next book, You Won’t Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters, was released in July 2026 through Fern Press. The book consists of seven essays covering mother-daughter dyads she'd covered throughout her career, six of which were originally published in The New Yorker.

Bibliography

Books

  • Aviv, Rachel (2022). Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories that Make Us. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  • — (2026). You Won’t Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters. Fern Press.

Essays and reporting

Critical studies and reviews of Aviv's work

Strangers to Ourselves

———————

Notes
  1. ↑ Online version is titled "The philosopher of feelings".
  2. ↑ Online version is titled "How Elizabeth Loftus changed the meaning of memory".
  3. ↑ Online version is titled "The victim who became the accused".
  4. ↑ Online version is titled "A British nurse was found guilty of killing seven babies. Did she do it?".

References

  1. ↑ Allsop, Jon (September 19, 2017). "Q&A: New Yorker's Rachel Aviv on making well-worn topics fresh". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  2. ↑ DeGooyer, Stephanie (2026-06-30). "Rachel Aviv's Act of Revision: On You Won't Get Free of It". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2026-11-07.
  3. 1 2 Roth, Marco (September 6, 2022). "Rachel Aviv's Journey to the Ends of Psychiatry". Tablet Magazine. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
  4. ↑ Franco, Katherine (21 March 2023). "An Interview with Rachel Aviv". The Oxonian Review. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  5. ↑ Kisner, Jordan (2022-09-13). "The Diagnosis Trap". The Atlantic. ISSN 2151-9463. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  6. ↑ Hitsky, Alan (May 12, 2000). "Cap & Gown". The Detroit Jewish News. p. 87.
  7. ↑ "Complicated Truth". Brown Alumni Magazine. March 18, 2016. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  8. ↑ "Rachel Aviv". Whiting Foundation. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  9. ↑ "Rachel Aviv". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  10. ↑ Andriani, Lynn (September 8, 2010). "2010 Rona Jaffe Foundation Award Winners Announced". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  11. ↑ Scanlan, Chip (January 6, 2022). "How Rachel Aviv of The New Yorker exposed the 'troubled teen industry'". Nieman Storyboard. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  12. ↑ Aviv, Rachel (2017-10-02). "How the Elderly Lose Their Rights". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2022-08-31.
  13. ↑ Bloom, Ester (2014-07-30). "Two Stories by Rachel Aviv About Parents, Children, and Our Legal System". Longreads. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  14. ↑ Aviv, Rachel (2024-05-13). "A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies. Did She Do It?". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2024-05-15.
  15. ↑ "The New Yorker Wins Two National Magazine Awards". The New Yorker. 2022-04-05. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  16. ↑ "The New Yorker's Jane Mayer and Rachel Aviv Win Polk Awards". The New Yorker. 2025-02-17. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  17. ↑ "Rachel Aviv of The New Yorker". The Pulitzer Prizes. Columbia University. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  18. ↑ Hu, Jane (2022-12-23). "What Their Psychiatrists Won't Tell You". Vulture. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  19. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2022". The New York Times. November 29, 2022. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  20. ↑ Varno, David (2023-02-01). "NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR PUBLISHING YEAR 2022". National Book Critics Circle. Retrieved 2023-02-03.
  21. ↑ Stewart, Sophia (January 31, 2023). "2023 National Book Critics Circle Awards Finalists Announced". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  22. ↑ "You Won't Get Free of It". Penguin Books UK. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  23. ↑ "You Won't Get Free of It by Rachel Aviv: 9780525657057". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 2026-07-05.
  24. ↑ DeGooyer, Stephanie (2026-06-30). "Rachel Aviv's Act of Revision: On You Won't Get Free of It". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2026-07-05.