Sven Birkerts

Utne Reader

Sven Birkerts is a modern master of the literary essay. In his award winning books, The Electric Life: essays on Twentieth Century Literature, American Energies: Essays on Fiction, and The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age he uses this forgotten form to work through critical literary theory, defending the written word in prose. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994, he is a lecturer at Emerson College's Department of Writing, Literature and Publishing and a Contributing Editor to the Boston Review.