Walter Norris Kirn (born August 3, 1962)[1] is an American novelist, literary critic, and essayist. He is the author of eight books, most notably Up in the Air, which was made into a film of the same name starring George Clooney.
Walter Kirn | |
|---|---|
 Kirn on March 1, 2015 | |
| Born | Walter Norris Kirn August 3, 1962 Akron, Ohio, U.S. |
| Education | Princeton University (AB) Oxford University |
| Occupations |
|
| Notable work | Up in the Air |
| Spouse(s) | Penelope Locke (divorced) Maggie McGuane (divorced) Amanda Fortini |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | walterkirn.com/ |
Education
editKirn graduated with an A.B. in English from Princeton University in 1983 after completing a 22-page-long senior thesis entitled "Entangling Breaths (Poems)."[2] Following that, he obtained a second undergraduate degree in English Literature at Oxford University, where he was a Keasbey Memorial Foundation Scholar.[3]
Writing
editKirn has published a collection of short stories and several novels. These include Thumbsucker (1999), which was made into a 2005 film featuring Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn. Kirn's 2001 novel, Up in the Air, has been characterized as a literary chronotope relating to the genre of road narratives.[4] It was made into a 2009 film directed by Jason Reitman. Starring George Clooney and Anna Kendrick, it was a commercial success and went on to receive critical acclaim as well as numerous nominations and awards.
In 2005, Kirn took over blogger Andrew Sullivan's publication while Sullivan was on vacation. He also wrote The Unbinding, an Internet-only novel that was published in Slate magazine.[5]
Kirn's 2013 memoir Blood Will Out, is an account of his relationship with the convicted murderer and imposter Christian Gerhartsreiter, who had initially approached Kirn using the alias of "Clark Rockefeller".
He has also reviewed books for New York Magazine and has written for The New York Times Book Review, New York Times Sunday Magazine, The Atlantic and Spy, and is a contributing editor of Time, where he has received popularity for his entertaining and sometimes humorous first-person essays among other articles of interest. He also served as an American cultural correspondent for the BBC.
In 2023, Kirn and David Samuels launched County Highway, a magazine about America in the form of a nineteenth-century newspaper, and as America's only newspaper. Donald Rosenfeld is the publisher.
Teaching
editIn addition to teaching nonfiction writing at the University of Montana, Kirn was the 2008–09 Vare Nonfiction Writer in Residence at the University of Chicago.[6]
Media
editKirn appears on the weekly podcast, America This Week with Matt Taibbi. He is a weekly regular panelist on Gutfeld! He had a cameo appearance in Up in the Air as a boardroom member.
Personal life
editKirn was born in Akron, Ohio, but grew up in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota. After high school, he attended Macalester College for one year before transferring to Princeton University.[7] Kirn's family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was twelve, but Kirn is no longer affiliated with the church.[8] In 1995, Kirn married Maggie McGuane, the daughter of actress Margot Kidder and novelist Thomas McGuane.[9] The couple had two children but have since divorced.[10] Kirn is now married to magazine writer Amanda Fortini. The two split their time between Livingston, Montana and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Books
editFiction
editNovels
edit- She Needed Me (1992)
- Thumbsucker (1999)
- Up in the Air (2001)
- Mission to America (2005)
- The Unbinding (2006)
Short fiction collections
edit- My Hard Bargain: Stories (1990)[11]
Nonfiction
editFilmography
edit- Thumbsucker (2005)
- Up in the Air (2009)
References
edit- ^ "Walter Kirn". Mormon Literature Database. Brigham Young University. c. 2003. Retrieved June 30, 2010.
- ^ Kirn, Walter Norris (1983). "Entangling Breaths (Poems)".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ "Walter Kirn". Retrieved 2014-11-22.
- ^ Hansen, Julie. "Space, time, and plane travel in Walter Kirn's novel up in the air." Nordic Journal of English Studies, vol. 11, no. 3, Sept. 2012, pp. 18
- ^ "The Unbinding: An exclusive Slate novel. By Walter Kim". Slate. 13 March 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-22.
- ^ "Robert Vare Nonfiction Writer-in-Residence Program". varewir.uchicago.edu.
- ^ Kirn, Walter (2005-01-05). "Lost in the Meritocracy". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2014-07-20.
- ^ NPR: Writer Walter Kirn, on a 'Mission to America'
- ^ Brozan, Nadine (1995-08-16). "Chronicle". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
- ^ - Walter Kirn Author, "Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever"]
- ^ Kirn, Walter (1990). My Hard Bargain: Stories. New York: Knopf.
External links
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