Daphne Miriam Merkin (born 30 May 1954 in New York City) is a literary critic, essayist and novelist. Merkin is a graduate of Barnard College. She also attended Columbia University's graduate program in English literature.[1]
She began her career as a book critic for Commentary magazine,[1] The New Republic, and The New Leader, where she wrote a book column and later, a movie column.[1] In 1986, she became an editor with the publishing house of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. In 1997, after Tina Brown became editor of The New Yorker, Merkin became a film critic for the magazine. She also wrote extensively on books and became known for her frank and lyrical forays into autobiography; her personal essays tackled subjects ranging from her battle with depression, to her predilection for spanking,[2] to the unacknowledged complexities of growing up rich on Park Avenue. In 2005, she joined The New York Times Magazine as a contributing writer. She is the author of a novel, Enchantment (1984)[1] as well as a collection of essays, Dreaming of Hitler (1997).[3]
Her father was the wealthy philanthropist Hermann Merkin. Her brother is J. Ezra Merkin, a hedge fund manager and philanthropist who was embroiled in the Bernard Madoff scandal.[4]
Merkin teaches writing at the 92nd Street Y.[5] She married and divorced Michael Brod, and lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan with her daughter, Zoe. She also is a contributing editor to Tablet Magazine.[6]