David Shields is the author of twenty-four books, including '' Reality Hunger'' (which, in 2019, ''Lit Hub'' named one of the most important books of the past decade), ''The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead'' (a New York Times bestseller), ''Black Planet'' (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and PEN USA Award), and ''Other People: Takes & Mistakes'' (NYTBR Editors’ Choice). ''The Very Last Interview'' was published by New York Review Books in 2022. The film adaptation of ''I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel'', which Shields co-wrote and co-stars in, was released in 2017. Shields wrote, produced, and directed ''Lynch: A History'', a 2019 documentary about Marshawn Lynch's use of silence, echo, and mimicry as key tools of resistance. A new film, ''How We Got Here'', which argues that Melville plus Nietzsche divided by the square root of (Allan) Bloom times Žižek (squared) equals Bannon, is forthcoming, as is a companion volume of the same name. The recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, two NEA fellowships, and the PEN/Revson Award, Shields—a senior contributing editor of the literary journal ''Conjunctions''—has published fiction and nonfiction in the ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'', '' Harper's'', ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'', ''

Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on hi ...

'', ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ( ...

'', ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'', ''

Tin House ''Tin House'' is an American book publisher based in Portland, Oregon, and New York City. Portland publisher Win McCormack originally conceived the idea for a literary magazine called ''Tin House'' in the summer of 1998. He enlisted Holly MacArt ...

'', ''A Public Space'', ''McSweeney's'', ''Believer'', ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'', ''Los Angeles Review of Books'', and ''Best American Essays''. His work has been translated into two dozen languages.

Early life

Shields was born in Los Angeles in 1956 to a lower-middle-class Jewish family. He has an older sister, a half-brother, and a half-sister. Both of Shields's parents were journalists. His mother, the West Coast correspondent for the ''Nation'' for many years'','' was a political activist; his father worked as a speechwriter for progressive politicians. In 1962, the family moved to San Francisco, where Shields's parents were deeply involved in the local anti-war and civil rights community, frequently opening up their home to those in need of short- or long-term shelter. In 1978, Shields graduated,

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

, magna cum laude, from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, with a Bachelor of Arts, with Honors, in British and American Literature. In 1980, he received a Master of Fine Arts, with Honors in Fiction, from the

University of Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a celebrated graduate-level creative writing program in the United States. The writer Lan Samantha Chang is its director. Graduates earn a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Creative Wri ...

Career

Shields's debut novel, ''Heroes'', about a Midwestern sportswriter's fascination with a college basketball player, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1984. From 1985 to 1988, he was a visiting assistant professor at

St. Lawrence University St. Lawrence University is a private liberal arts college in the village of Canton in St. Lawrence County, New York. It has roughly 2,400 undergraduate and 100 graduate students. Though St. Lawrence today is non-denominational, it was founde ...

in Canton, NY. In 1989, Knopf published Shields's second novel, ''Dead Languages,'' a semi-autobiographical novel about a boy growing up with a severe stutter. ''Dead Languages'' is a work of fiction, but it incorporates significantly larger shards of reality than Shields's first book, marking the initial phase of Shields's transition toward nonfiction, which would ultimately lead him to employ the literary collage and ‘anti-novel’ forms for which he is most well-known. In 1992, his novel-in-stories, ''Handbook for Drowning,'' was published by Knopf. In 1996, Shields became a faculty member in the

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a requisite course of study, work an on-campus ...

low-residency MFA Program for Writers, a position he still holds. That same year, his fourth book, ''Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity,'' Shields's first work of literary collage, was published by Knopf. Between 1997 and 2009, Shields published five books: ''Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season'' (Random House, 1999), a finalist for the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".PEN USA award; ''Baseball Is Just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro'' (TNI Books, 2001), which achieved bestseller status in Japan; ''Enough About You: Notes toward the New Autobiography'' (Simon & Schuster, 2002); ''Body Politic: The Great American Sports Machine'' (Simon & Schuster, 2004); and ''The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead'' (Knopf, 2008), a ''New York Times'' bestseller. In 2001, Shields became a visiting instructor at the

Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by '' The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...

and has taught there ever since. In 2010, Shields's tenth book, '' Reality Hunger: A Manifesto'', was published by Knopf. In ''

Vanity Fair Vanity Fair may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Literature * Vanity Fair, a location in '' The Pilgrim's Progress'' (1678), by John Bunyan * ''Vanity Fair'' (novel), 1848, by William Makepeace Thackeray * ''Vanity Fair'' (magazines), the ...

'',

Elissa Schappell Elissa Schappell is an American novelist, short-story writer, editor and essayist. She was a co-founder and editor of the literary magazine ''Tin House''. Writing career Schappell graduated from New York University with an MFA in creative writin ...

called ''Reality Hunger'' an “arousing call to arms for all artists to reject the laws governing appropriation, obliterate the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction, and give rise to a new modern form for a new century.” ''Reality Hunger'' was recently named one of the 100 most important books of the 2010s by ''

LitHub Literary Hub is a daily literary website that launched in 2015 by Grove Atlantic president and publisher Morgan Entrekin, American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame editor Terry McDonell, and Electric Literature founder Andy Hunter. Conten ...

.'' In 2011, Norton published ''The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death'', an anthology Shields co-edited with Brad Morrow. In 2012, New Harvest published ''

Jeff, One Lonely Guy ''Jeff, One Lonely Guy'' is a 2012 nonfiction book by Jeff Ragsdale. It was published on March 20, 2012 by New Harvest. Dave Eggers selected the book for inclusion in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012, and it was a GQ 2012 "Book of the ...

,'' a collage co-written by Shields, Jeff Ragsdale, and Michael Logan. Later that year, an anthology co-edited by Shields and Matthew Vollmer, ''Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, “Found” Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts'', was published by Norton. David Shields 2013

In 2013, Knopf published ''How Literature Saved My Life'', a blend of confessional criticism and cultural autobiography. Also in 2013, Simon & Schuster published '' Salinger,'' an “oral biography” of J.D. Salinger by Shields and

Shane Salerno Shane Salerno (born November 27, 1972) is an American screenwriter, producer, and Chief Creative Officer of The Story Factory. His writing credits include the films '' Avatar: The Way of Water'', ''Armageddon'', '' Savages,'' '' Shaft'', and the ...

. ''Salinger'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller and has been translated into more than a dozen languages. In 2015, Hawthorne Books published ''Life Is Short — Art is Shorter'': ''In Praise of Brevity'', which Shields co-edited with Elizabeth Cooperman. In 2015, Shields also published ''That Thing You Do With Your Mouth: The Sexual Autobiography of Samantha Matthews as told to David Shields'' (McSweeney's); ''I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel,'' co-written with Caleb Powell; and ''War Is Beautiful: The''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''Pictorial Guide to the Glamour of Armed Conflict'' (powerHouse) a deconstruction of that newspaper's front-page war photography. ''Other People: Takes & Mistakes'' was published by Knopf in 2017. That same year, First Pond Entertainment released the film adaptation of ''I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel'', written by Shields and Powell, starring Shields and Powell and

James Franco James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-M ...

, and directed by Franco. The trio debate the value of life versus art; art wins, barely. The film is available now on Vudu. In 2018, Shields's book ''Nobody Hates Trump More Than Trump: An Intervention'' was published by Thought Catalog Books. In 2019, ''The Trouble With Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power'' was published by Mad Creek Books. Later the same year, Shields's debut documentary, ''Lynch: A History,'' an ode to

Marshawn Lynch Marshawn Terrell Lynch (born April 22, 1986) is an American former football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons. Nicknamed "Beast Mode", he spent the majority of his career with the Seattle Seahawks. Lync ...

’s use of silence, echo, and mimicry as key tools of resistance, premiered at the

Seattle International Film Festival The Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees. The SIFF runs for more th ...

. The film, which Shields wrote, produced, and directed, was named one of the five best films at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam and has won numerous awards, including the Golden SunBreak Award for Best Documentary and the End of Cinema Award for Best Nonfiction Film. The film is now available on Sundance TV, AMC, First Look Media, Amazon Prime, and iTunes/AppleTV.

Critical reception

Shields's early fiction was noted for its use of neorealism. In 1989, writing in the '' Virginia Quarterly Review'', Lance Olsen included Shields as part of the “Next Generation of Fiction.” With the 1996 publication of ''Remote'', which

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

described in ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and fo ...

'' as “one of the definitive texts of the 1990s—a trim, elegant nonfiction answer to ''

Infinite Jest ''Infinite Jest'' is a 1996 novel by American writer David Foster Wallace. Categorized as an encyclopedic novel, ''Infinite Jest'' is featured in ''TIME'' magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005. ...

,''” Shields began to build his reputation as a pioneer of collage. ''Reality Hunger'' was highly controversial when it was published in 2010. In ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'',

Lucy Sante Lucy Sante (formerly Luc Sante; born May 25, 1954) is a Belgium-born American writer, critic, and artist. She is a frequent contributor to ''The New York Review of Books''. Her books include '' Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York'' (1991) ...

wrote that the book “urgently and succinctly addresses matters that have been in the air, have relentlessly gathered momentum, and have just been waiting for someone to link them together... hields'sbook probably heralds what will be the dominant modes in years and decades to come.” ''Reality Hunger'' has, in fact, proven extremely influential on 21st century nonfiction, “autofiction,” and documentary film. However, in the ''

New Yorker New Yorker or ''variant'' primarily refers to: * A resident of the State of New York ** Demographics of New York (state) * A resident of New York City ** List of people from New York City * ''The New Yorker'', a magazine founded in 1925 * '' The ...

'', James Wood called the book “highly problematic” in its “unexamined promotion of what hieldsinsists on calling ‘reality’ over narrative,” although Wood did acknowledge that Shields's “arguments about the tediousness and terminality of current fictional convention are well-taken.” In the decade since ''Reality Hunger'', Shields has published a dozen books, many of which are collaborative and nearly all of which attempt to embody the ''ars poetica'' theorized in ''Reality Hunger''. The first of these collaborations, ''Salinger'', a 2013 oral biography that subtly defied the conventions of nonfiction through its piecing together of an abundance of primary material, was praised by John Walsh in the '' Sunday Times (London)'' as “a stupendous work . . . I predict with the utmost confidence that, after this, the world will not need another Salinger biography.” Shields continued to transform and remix genre in ''War Is Beautiful'', which Heather Baysa in the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' called a “disturbingly graphic book

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

follows the ''New York Times'''s war reporting for more than a decade, exposing the institution's tendency to glamorize armed combat to the point of manipulation." ''I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel,'' a collaboration between Shields and Caleb Powell, was praised for its erasure of the boundary between mask and self, a frequent theme in Shields's work. In the ''

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

'', Leslie Jamison wrote that the book's “goal isn't sympathy or forgiveness. ''Life is not personal''. Life is evidence. It's fodder for argument. To put the ‘I’ to work this way invites a different intimacy—not voyeuristic communion but collaborative inquiry, author and reader facing the same questions from inside their inevitably messy lives.” ''Lynch: A History'', whose montage approach builds off of the collage style of Shields's books'','' marks the next major shift in Shields's career: documentary film. In the ''

,''

Hua Hsu Hua Hsu (born 1977) is an American writer and academic, based in New York City. He is a professor of English at Bard College and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. His work includes investigations of immigrant culture in the United States, as ...

wrote, “''Lynch'' feels like the culmination of Shields's career. The film's relentless rhythm overwhelms and overpowers you. Random acts of terror, across time and space, reveal themselves as a pattern. It's a gradient of American carnage.”

Books

*''The Very Last Interview'', New York Review Books, 2022 *''The Trouble With Men: Reflections on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn, and Power'', Mad Creek Books, 2019 *''Nobody Hates Trump More than Trump: An Intervention'', Thought Catalog, 2018 *''Other People: Takes & Mistakes'', Knopf, 2017 *''War is Beautiful:'' The New York Times ''Pictorial Guide to the Glamour of Armed Conflict'', powerHouse Books, 2015 *''That Thing You Do With Your Mouth: The Sexual Autobiography of Samantha Matthews, as told to David Shields'', McSweeney's, 2015 *''Life Is Short—Art Is Shorter'': ''In Praise of Brevity'', co-edited with Elizabeth Cooperman, Hawthorne Books, 2015 *''I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel'', co-written with Caleb Powell, Knopf, 2015 *'' Salinger'', co-written with Shane Salerno, Simon & Schuster, 2013 *''How Literature Saved My Life'', Knopf, 2013 *''Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, "Found" Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts'', co-edited with Matthew Vollmer, W.W. Norton, 2012 *'' Jeff: One Lonely Guy,'' co-written with Jeff Ragsdale and Michael Logan, New Harvest, 2012 *''The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death'', co-edited with Bradford Morrow, W.W. Norton, 2011 *'' Reality Hunger: A Manifesto'', Knopf, 2010 *''The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead'', Knopf, 2008 *''Body Politic: The Great American Sports Machine'', Simon & Schuster, 2004 *''Enough About You: Notes Toward the New Autobiography'', Simon & Schuster, 2002 *''Baseball Is Just Baseball" The Understated Ichiro'', TNI Books, 2001 *''Black Planet: Facing Race during an NBA Season'', Crown, 1999 *''Remote: Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity'', Knopf, 1996 *''Handbook for Drowning: A Novel in Stories'', Knopf 1992 *''Dead Languages: A Novel'', Knopf 1989 *''Heroes: A Novel'', Simon & Schuster, 1984

Films

Awards

*''Lynch: A History'' won the Golden SunBreak Award for Best Documentary at the

, 2019 *''Lynch: A History'' was a finalist for ''Filmspotting's'' Golden Brick award for Best Low-Budget Indie Film of 2019, 2019 *Reality Hunger (2010) named one of the 100 decade-defining books, ''LitHub'', 2019 *Royalty Research Fund Fellowships, The University of Washington, 2016, 2008, 2002, 1997, 1989 *Pabst Endowed Chair, Atlantic Center for the Arts, February/March 2015 *Frye Art Museum/Artist Trust Consortium James W. Ray Distinguishes Artist Award, 2015 *One of Amazon's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year: ''I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel'' (2015) *''Goodreads'' Choice Awards, finalist for best History/Biography, ''Salinger'', 2013 * Artist Trust Innovative Arts Award, 2013 * ''&Now Awards: Best Innovative Writing'', 2013 * ''Best American Non-Required Reading'', 2012 *''Reality Hunger: A Manifesto'' named as one of the best American essays of 2008 and one of the "Essayest American Essays" by ''Quotidiana'' *4 Culture Award, 2008 *John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, 2005–2006 *Simpson Center for the Humanities Research Fellowship, University of Washington, 2005-2006 *''Body Politic'' named as one of the best 25 books of the year by the ''Seattle Times'', 2004 *Artist Trust Fellowships for Literature, 2003, 1991 *Silver Medal, Canadian National Magazine Award, for contribution to "Fifteen Ways of Looking at Vince Carter" in ''Saturday Night'' magazine, 2001 *Finalist, National Book Critics Circle Award, for ''Black Planet'', 2000 *Finalist, PEN USA Award, for ''Black Planet'', 2000 *''Black Planet'' named one of the 10 best nonfiction books of the year by ''Esquire, Newsday, LA Weekly,'' and Amazon, 2000 *First prize, ''Web del Sol'' creative Non-Quiction Contest, 1999 *Distinguished Author's Award, Brandeis University National Women's Committee, 1994 *Seattle Arts Commission Fellowship, 1992 *King County Arts Commission Independent Artist New Works Award, 1992 *PEN/Revson Foundation Fellowship, 1992 *National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Fiction, 1991, 1982 *Residency fellowships: Corporation of Yaddo (3), MacDowell Colony (2), Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (3), Ragdale Foundation (2), Millay Colony (Edna St. Vincent Millay Award), Cummington Community of the Arts, Centrum—1982-1991 *Washington State Book Award for ''Dead Languages'', 1990 *Silver Medal, Commonwealth Club of California Book Awards, for ''Dead Languages'', 1989 *Short story "Audrey" chosen as one of the "Ten Best" stories in the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project and included with two others in a program of short fiction presented at The Library of Congress, 1989 *PEN Syndicated Fiction winter, 1988 1985 *New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, 1988 *Ingram Merill Foundation award, 1983 *James D. Phelan Literary Award, San Francisco Foundation, 1981 *Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award, 1980-1982

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, David Living people 1956 births Brown University alumni Iowa Writers' Workshop alumni