Mara Altman is a writer, primarily of personal essays.Before going freelance, Altman had been a staff writer for the Village Voice and daily newspapers in India and Thailand.Altman's work has appeared in The New York Times, Salon, New York Magazine and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Her first book, "Thanks for Coming," was published in 2009. Her second book, "Gross Anatomy: Dispatches from the Front (and Back)," was published in 2018.Altman received her M.A. in Journalism from Columbia University.