S. C. Cornell


is a writer based in Mexico City. Her first book, the true story of the murder of a migrant in Arizona, is forthcoming from Penguin Press. It has been awarded a Whiting grant and a Robert B. Silvers grant. 

Her essays and reporting have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of BooksThe Drift, and LIBER: A Feminist Review.

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Contact her: sccornell1 at gmail

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Selected Writing


2026

Yes, And?

The New Yorker | Consent and its discontents.


2025

So You Want To Be a Genius

The New Yorker | A bad idea. 

Andrea Long Chu Owns the Libs

The New Yorker | A critic’s politics.

The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Virgins

The New Yorker | Sex and Christianity.


2024

Death In Nogales 

NYRB | Border vigilantes. 
(En español
aquí.)

Great Personal Risk

The Drift | Pay for pregnancy.
     

Let Me Tell You What She Means

LIBER | The misreading of Joan Didion.


2023

The Abortion Plot

The New Yorker | Sara Gallardo.

Who Gets to Play in Women’s Leagues?

The New Yorker | Sex and sports. 

Our Lady of Anxiety

LIBER | Roz Chast.

How Much Do Words Matter? 

The New Yorker | Feminist etymology. 

On Androgyny 

LIBER | Susan Sontag’s utopia.


2022

To Get It Was The Gift of Life

LIBER | Darryl Pinckney and Elizabeth Hardwick.

Fetal Rites

The Drift | Anti-abortion propaganda.

Sex Tips From Apes

LIBER | Sexual essentialism.

Diary of the Seduced

LIBER | Elif Batuman.

Baby, Was I Born This Way?

LIBER | Amia Srinivasan.