Alissa Wilkinson is a Writer and teacher living in New York City.

She’s a movie critic at the New York Times, and her latest book is We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine (Liveright, 2025).

Alissa has taught courses in creative nonfiction writing and the humanities since 2009. She writes about pop culture, media, technology, religion, and history — and, especially, where they all intersect.