Kim Chernin
Kim Chernin (May 7, 1940 – December 17, 2020) was an American writer, poet and spiritual counselor. She wrote fiction, nonfiction and poetry about how women find themselves. Her early books on eating disorders helped bring attention to these issues, and her memoir In My Mother’s House: A Daughter’s Story (1983) is one of the first important books about mother–daughter relationships.
She was born Elaine Kusnitz in the Bronx to Russian Jewish immigrant parents. Her mother, Rose Chernin Kusnitz, was a labor organizer and activist; her father, Paul Kusnitz, was an engineer. A sister, Nina, died when Kim was young, a trauma that shaped her life and writing. The family later moved to Los Angeles. Kim spent time in Europe and Israel and studied English at UC Berkeley, graduating in 1965. She married David Netboy and had a daughter named Larissa; they later divorced, and she began using the name Kim Chernin.
Chernin published The Obsession (1981) and The Hungry Self (1983), books that explored how culture and patriarchy affect women’s eating disorders. Her first novel, The Flame Bearers (1983), deals with a Jewish women’s mystical group in Israel. She wrote about her own experiences with trauma and healing through psychoanalysis, and her memoirs looked at motherhood, sexuality and Jewish identity.
She came out as a lesbian in 1978 and formed a long partnership with German writer Renate Stendhal. They collaborated on several books, including Sex and Other Sacred Games (1987) and Cecilia Bartoli: A Passion of Song (1999). In 2000 they started EdgeWork Books to publish women writers. They also published Lesbian Marriage: A Love & Sex Survival Kit (2014).
Later in life, Chernin stopped publishing for a while but kept writing. Her final novel, At Midnight God Enters the Garden of Eden, was unfinished when she suffered a stroke in 2020; she died later that year from COVID-19. Her diaries, poems and other papers are kept at the Schlesinger Library.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:54 (CET).