Curtis White (author)

Curtis White is an American essayist and author. Most of his career has been spent writing experimental fiction, but he has turned recently to writing books of social criticism. He serves as an English professor at Illinois State University in Normal, IL. ^[1]

In 1989, Curtis White co-founded and served as the first Managing Director of Fiction Collective Two (FC2), an independent publisher covering experimental literature. ^[2]

Books

As author

• Heretical Songs (short fiction) (Fiction Collective, 1981)
• Metaphysics in the Midwest (stories) (Sun & Moon, 1989)
• The Idea of Home (Sun & Moon, 1993; reprinted by Dalkey Archive Press, 2004)
• Anarcho-Hindu (FC2, 1995)
• Monstrous Possibility: An Invitation to Literary Politics (Dalkey Archive Press, 1998)
• Memories of My Father Watching TV (Dalkey Archive Press, 1998)
• Requiem (Dalkey Archive Press, 2001)
• The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don't Think for Themselves (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003)
• America's Magic Mountain (Dalkey Archive Press, 2004) ^[3]
• The Spirit of Disobedience: Resisting the Charms of Fake Politics, Mindless Consumption, and the Culture of Total Work (Polipoint Press, 2006)
• The Barbaric Heart: Faith, Money, and the Crisis of Nature (Polipoint Press, 2009)
• The Science Delusion: Asking the Big Questions in a Culture of Easy Answers (Melville House Publishing, 2013) ^[4]
• We Robots: Staying Human in the Age of Big Data (Melville House Publishing, 2015) ^[5]
• Lacking Character: A Novel (Melville House Publishing, March 2018)
• Living in a World that Can’t Be Fixed: Reimagining Counterculture Today (Melville House Publishing, November 2019) ^[6]
• Transcendent: Art and Dharma in a Time of Collapse (Melville House Publishing, 2023)
• On Resistance: A Manifesto (Melville House Publishing, 2026)

As editor

• American Made (co-edited with Mark Leyner and Thomas Glynn, Fiction Collective, 1986)
• An Illuminated History of the Future (FC2, 1989)
• In The Slipstream: An FC2 Reader (FC2, 1999) (co-edited with Ronald Sukenick)

Other works

Lapham's Quarterly

• It's Not About You, a preamble to Lapham's Quarterly's Spring 2023 issue

Harper's Magazine

• The Idols of Environmentalism, a piece mentioning the shortcomings of modern environmentalist philosophy, 2007. ^[7]
• Hot Air Gods, a critical essay on spiritual and political figures in depth, 2007. ^[8]

Jacobin Magazine

• The Philanthropic Complex, an analytical essay on major foundations and how corporate charity acts slow down social reform, 2012. ^[9]
• DNA: A Parasite that Builds Its Own Host?, a critique of reductionist human evolutionary ideologies, 2013. ^[10]

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

• The Benevolent Unknown, a philosophical essay on the difficulties of staying politically and spiritually engaged in a subjectively collapsing world, 2025. ^[11]
• Against the Stream, a modern essay examining the collision of Buddhist practice, modern artistic expression, and transcendence, 2023. ^[12]
• Our World in the Wheel of Life, a social critique of cosmology based on the Buddhist Wheel of Life. ^[13]

References

1. "Curtis White". HarperCollins. Retrieved May 15, 2026.
2. White, Curtis. "The Fiction Corrective | FC2" . Retrieved October 14, 2026.
3. "'America's Magic Mountain': Sick of It". The New York Times . December 26, 2004. Retrieved March 21, 2020.
4. O'Connell, Mark (June 7, 2013). "The Science Delusion by Curtis White, reviewed". Slate . Retrieved March 21, 2020.
5. Peter Forbes (December 11, 2015). "Curtis White, We, Robots: Staying Human in the Age of Big Data: 'A soulful swipe at science' - book review". The Independent . Retrieved March 21, 2020.
6. "Social critic wants all Americans to reclaim revolutionary authenticity". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Retrieved March 21, 2020.
7. "The Idols of Environmentalism, by Curtis White". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
8. "Hot air gods, by Curtis White". Harper's Magazine. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
9. By (April 22, 2012). "The Philanthropic Complex". jacobin.com. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
10. By (June 17, 2013). "DNA: A Parasite that Builds Its Own Host?". jacobin.com. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
11. White, Curtis (July 16, 2025). "The Benevolent Unknown". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
12. White, Curtis (October 13, 2023). "Against the Stream". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved July 28, 2026.
13. White, Curtis. "Our World in the Wheel of Life". Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Retrieved July 28, 2026.

External links

Essays and interviews

• "Saving Private Ryan : Don't try to do no thinkin'!", in CONTEXT
• "Chickening Out. Fear and loathing in the academy: Ward Churchill faces the dilemma of the holy whore", essay Archived June 19, 2010, at the Wayback Machine , in Village Voice, 2005.
• "In the Sharkcage with Curtis White"  : an interview by Trevor Dodge at Alt-X
• "An Interview with Curtis White"  : an interview by Ben Kuebrich for OxMag, May 2007.
• "Largehearted Boy Book Notes essay  : a music playlist for The Barbaric Heart at Largehearted Boy
• "The spirit of disobedience: an invitation to resistance". Harper's Magazine. April 1, 2006. Archived from the original on July 4, 2014 – via HighBeam Research.

Audio

• Lecture at Clackamas Community College, (March 14, 2007)

Also

• Vol. XVIII, no. 2 of the Review of Contemporary Fiction contains numerous essays on Curtis White's career and books.