Amanda Vaill
fellow at the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts
About Amanda
Amanda is one of the most accomplished biographers and narrative historians working today. Her books include the bestselling Everybody Was So Young (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award), Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins (recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship), and Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War.
Amanda also wrote the Emmy- and Peabody-winning American Masters documentary Jerome Robbins: Something to Dance About. Her essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Town & Country, and many other publications. A former book editor and the inaugural executive director of House of SpeakEasy, Amanda has been a fellow at the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, and the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.
Appearances
Every time Amanda Vaill has taken the stage with House of SpeakEasy.
Mind the Gap
Joe's Pub at The Public Theater
On October 21, 2025, Vaill performed at Joe’s Pub for Seriously Entertaining: "Mind the Gap" in collaboration with the Association of Marshall Scholars.
Ink Runs Dry
City Winery
Vaill performed on stage for Seriously Entertaining at City Winery on May 20, 2014, speaking on the evening’s theme, "Ink Runs Dry". Watch it below.