Lawrence Weschler (born 1952) is an author of works of creative nonfiction.
A graduate of Cowell College of the
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...
(1974), Weschler was for over twenty years (1981–2002) a staff writer at ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies. He is a two-time winner of the
George Polk Award
The George Polk Awards in Journalism are a series of American journalism awards presented annually by Long Island University in New York in the United States. A writer for Idea Lab, a group blog hosted on the website of PBS, described the awar ...
s—for Cultural Reporting in 1988 and Magazine Reporting in 1992—and was also a recipient of the
Lannan Literary Award
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...
(1998).
His books of political reportage include ''The Passion of Poland'' (1984); ''A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers'' (1990); and ''Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas'' (1998).
His “Passions and Wonders” series currently comprises ''Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin'' (1982); ''
David Hockney
David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
’s Cameraworks'' (1984); '' Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder'' (1995); ''A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces'' (1998); ''Boggs: A Comedy of Values'' (1999); ''Robert Irwin: Getty Garden'' (2002); ''Vermeer in Bosnia'' (2004); ''Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences'' (February 2006); and ''Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative'' (2011). ''Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder'' was shortlisted for both the Pulitzer Prize and 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".Robert Irwin; a companion volume, ''True to Life: Twenty Five Years of Conversation with David Hockney''; '' Liza Lou'' (a monograph out of Rizzoli); '' Tara Donovan'', the catalog for the artist’s recent exhibition at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art, and ''
Deborah Butterfield
Deborah Kay Butterfield (born May 7, 1949) is an American sculptor. Along with her artist-husband John Buck, she divides her time between a farm in Bozeman, Montana, and studio space in Hawaii. She is known for her sculptures of horses made f ...
'', the catalog for a survey of the artist’s work at the LA Louver Gallery.
Weschler has taught, variously, at
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...
Sarah Lawrence
Sarah (born Sarai) is a biblical matriarch and prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her character similarly, as that of a pio ...
, and
NYU
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
New York Institute for the Humanities The New York Institute for the Humanities (NYIH) is an academic organization founded by Richard Sennett in 1976 to promote the exchange of ideas between academics, writers, and the general public. The NYIH regularly holds seminars open to the publ ...
at NYU, where he has been a fellow since 1991 and was director from 2001–2013, and from which base he had tried to start his own semiannual journal of writing and visual culture, ''Omnivore''. He is also the artistic director emeritus, still actively engaged, with the
Chicago Humanities Festival
The Chicago Humanities Festival is a non-profit organization which hosts an annual series of lectures, concerts, and films in Chicago. There are two seasons each year, including a spring festival from April through May, and a longer fall festival ...
, and curator for New York Live Ideas, an annual body-based humanities collaboration with Bill T. Jones and his NY Live Arts. He is a contributing editor to ''
McSweeney’s
McSweeney's Publishing is an American non-profit publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998 and headquartered in San Francisco.
Initially publishing the literary journal'' Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', the company has moved to n ...
'', ''
The Threepenny Review
''The Threepenny Review'' is an American literary magazine founded in 1980. It is published in Berkeley, California, by founding editor Wendy Lesser. Maintaining a quarterly schedule (March, June, September, December), it offers fiction, memoirs, ...
'', and ''
The Virginia Quarterly Review
The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion" ...
''; curator at large of the DVD quarterly ''
Wholphin
A wholphin (portmanteau of whale + dolphin) is an extremely rare cetacean hybrid born from a mating of a female common bottlenose dolphin (''Tursiops truncatus'') with a male false killer whale (''Pseudorca crassidens''). The name implies a hy ...
Ernst Toch
Ernst Toch (; 7 December 1887 – 1 October 1964) was an Austrian composer of classical music and film scores. He sought throughout his life to introduce new approaches to music.
Biography
Toch was born in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, into the family ...
Society, dedicated to the promulgation of the music of his grandfather, the noted Weimar émigré composer.
From 2013 to 2014, Weschler contributed “Pillow of Air,” a monthly column in '' The Believer'' dedicated to “Amble through the worlds of the visual.” In October 2021, in collaboration with editor and cartoonist David Stanford, Weschler launched the
Substack
Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. It allows writers to send digital newsletters directly to subscribers. Founded in 2017, Substack ...
newsletter WONDERCABINET, described as a "Fortnightly Compendium of the Miscellaneous Diverse", taking up many of the same themes as his earlier column.
Bibliography
Books
*
*''Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: A Life of Contemporary Artist Robert Irwin'' (1982)
*''The Passion of Poland: From Solidarity through the State of War'' (1984)
*''A Miracle, a Universe: Settling Accounts with Torturers'' (1990)
*''Shapinsky’s Karma, Boggs’s Bills, and Other True-life Tales'' (1990)
*'' Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder'' (1995)
*''A Wanderer in the Perfect City: Selected Passion Pieces'' (1998)
*''Calamities of Exile: Three Nonfiction Novellas'' (1998)
*''
Boggs Boggs may refer to:
Places
* Boggs Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania
* Boggs Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania
* Boggs Township, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania
* Boggs, West Virginia
* Boggs Island, on the Ohio River, West Virginia ...
: A Comedy of Values'' (1999)
*''Vermeer in Bosnia'' (2004)
*''Everything That Rises: A Book of Convergences'' (2006)
*''True To Life: Twenty-Five Years of Conversations with David Hockney'' (2008)
*''Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: Over Thirty Years of Conversations with Robert Irwin (Expanded Edition)'' (2008)
*''Uncanny Valley: Adventures in the Narrative'' (2011)
*''Domestic Scenes: The Art of Ramiro Gomez'' (2016)
*''Waves Passing in the Night'' (2017)
*''And How Are'' You'', Dr. Sacks?: A Biographical Memoir of
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...
'' (2019)
Essays and reporting
* "The Talk of the Town: Notes and Comment" ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' 60/49 (January 21, 1985): 21–22. Talk piece on disarmament.
* "The Talk of the Town: Notes and Comment" ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' 60/52 (February 11, 1985): 27–28. Talk piece on Polish political situation.
*
* "The Paralyzed Cyclops: Mediating a Vivid, Decades-Long Argument between Two Giants of Contemporary Art" '' The Believer'' 6/9 8(November/December 2008): 23–25. Robert Irwin & David Hockney. A Rare Personal Look at Oliver Sacks's Early Career (2015)