Sven Birkerts
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Sven Birkerts (born September 21, 1951) is an American essayist and literary critic of Latvian ancestry. He is best known for his book The Gutenberg Elegies, which posits a decline in reading due to the overwhelming advances of the Internet and other technologies of the "electronic culture."
Birkerts was born in Pontiac, Michigan. He graduated from Cranbrook School and then from the University of Michigan in 1973. He has taught writing at Harvard University, Emerson College, Amherst College, and most recently at Mount Holyoke College. Birkerts is the Director of the Bennington College Writing Seminars and the editor of AGNI, the literary journal. He now lives in the Boston area, specifically Arlington, Massachusetts, with his wife Lynn, daughter Mara, and son Liam.
His father is noted architect Gunnar Birkerts.
[edit] Works
- An Artificial Wilderness: Essays on 20th Century Literature. (1987). New York: William Morrow.
- The Electric Life: Essays on Modern Poetry. (1989). New York: William Morrow.
- American Energies: Essays on Fiction. (1992). New York: William Morrow.
- The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. (1994). Boston: Faber and Faber.
- Readings. (1999). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press.
- My Sky Blue Trades: Growing Up Counter in a Contrary Time. (2002). New York: Viking.
[edit] References
- Alger, Derek. "Interview, May 1, 2005". pif Magazine. http://www.pifmagazine.com/2005/05/sven-birkerts/. Retrieved 2010-06-18.
[edit] External Links
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- 1951 births
- University of Michigan alumni
- Harvard University faculty
- Bennington College faculty
- Living people
- American academics
- American educators
- Emerson College faculty
- Mount Holyoke College faculty
- People from Arlington, Massachusetts
- People from Pontiac, Michigan
- Writing teachers
- Cranbrook Educational Community alumni
- American people of Latvian descent
- Writers from Michigan
- Writers from Massachusetts
- American essayist stubs