Daphne Miriam Merkin (born May 30, 1954)^[1] is an American literary critic, essayist and novelist. Merkin is a graduate of Barnard College and also attended Columbia University's graduate program in English literature.^[2]

She began her career as a book critic for the magazines Commentary,^[2] The New Republic, and The New Leader, where she wrote a book column and later, a movie column.^[2] 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 forays into autobiography; her personal essays dealt with subjects ranging from her battle with depression, to her predilection for spanking,^[3] 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)^[2] as well as two collections of essays, Dreaming of Hitler (1997)^[4] and The Fame Lunches (2014),^[5] and a memoir, This Close to Happy: A Reckoning With Depression (2017).^[6] Her latest novel, 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love (2020),^[7] came out in July 2020.

Her parents were the philanthropists Hermann and Ursula Merkin. Her brother is J. Ezra Merkin, a hedge fund manager and philanthropist who was embroiled in the Bernie Madoff scandal.^[8]

Merkin teaches writing at the 92nd Street Y.^[9] 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.^[10]