Walter Kirn | |
---|---|
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/ |
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.
Kirn 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]
Kirn 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.
In 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]
Kirn appears on the weekly podcast, America This Week with Matt Taibbi. He is a weekly regular panelist on Gutfeld!
Kirn 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, daughter of actress Margot Kidder and novelist Thomas McGuane. Kirn was 32 at the time; McGuane was 19. [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.
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Thumbsucker is a 1999 novel by Walter Kirn. It was adapted into a film of the same name by Mike Mills in 2005.
Thumbsucker is a 2005 American independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Mills in his feature directorial debut. The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci, Tilda Swinton, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kelli Garner, Benjamin Bratt, Vince Vaughn, and Keanu Reeves. The plot focuses on Justin Cobb, a teenager in suburban Oregon, as he copes with his thumb-sucking problem, romance, and his diagnosis with ADHD and subsequent experience using Ritalin. The screenplay was adapted from the 1999 Walter Kirn novel of the same name. Swinton also served as an executive producer.
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Up in the Air is a 2001 novel by American author Walter Kirn. It was adapted into the 2009 feature film of the same name starring George Clooney.
Up in the Air is a 2009 American comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman. It was written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner, based on the 2001 novel Up in the Air by Walter Kirn. The story is centered on traveling corporate "downsizer" Ryan Bingham. Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, and Jason Bateman also star. Up in the Air was primarily filmed in St. Louis with additional scenes shot in Detroit, Omaha, Las Vegas, and Miami.
Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever is a 2009 memoir by Walter Kirn. It describes his own trip through the American education system from rural Minnesota to Princeton University.
Up in the Air may refer to:
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