ABSTRACT
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Veronica Geng lived there only briefly and, after a few years in Washington, DC, where her father's military career took the family, she grew up mainly in Philadelphia. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in English, and graduated cum laude in 1963. In 1975 Geng contributed a parody of film reviewer Pauline Kael to the New York Review of Books. This was her first published piece of humor. Following the sale of several humorous pieces to The New Yorker in 1976, she joined the staff and served as a fiction editor from 1977 through 1982. Geng's "casuals" are something other than an essay, something other than a short story; they often have a satiric edge, frequently employ parody, and are aimed at deflating pomposity, solemn nonsense and dishonesty. They are sophisticated, addressed to literate people who appreciate the absurd.
