Chuck Klosterman

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Chuck Klosterman
Chuck Klosterman at the Brooklyn Book Festival.jpg
Klosterman at the 2008 Brooklyn Book Festival
Born Charles John Klosterman
(1972-06-05) June 5, 1972 (age 40)
Breckenridge, Minnesota, United States
Occupation Author, columnist
Nationality American
Genres Music
Pop culture
Sports

Charles John "Chuck" Klosterman (born June 5, 1972) is an American author and essayist who has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and The Washington Post, and has written books focusing on American popular culture. He writes the "Ethicist" column for The New York Times Magazine.

Contents

Life and career [edit]

Klosterman was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota, the youngest of seven children of Florence and William Klosterman.[1] He is of German and Polish descent.[2] Though he was born in Minnesota, he grew up on a farm in nearby Wyndmere, North Dakota.[3] Klosterman was raised Roman Catholic. He graduated from Wyndmere High School in 1990 and from the University of North Dakota in 1994. After college, he was a journalist in Fargo, North Dakota and later an arts critic for the Akron Beacon Journal in Akron, Ohio, before moving to New York City in 2002.

Klosterman was a senior writer for Spin and had a column titled "My Back Pages" (formerly "Rant and Roll Over" and "### Words from Chuck Klosterman"). In March 2006, it was reported that Klosterman was fired after the magazine was sold and editor-in-chief Sia Michel was replaced, along with many other staffers. He still regularly contributes as a featured columnist to Esquire and has written for GQ, The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and The Washington Post.

Klosterman participated in an e-mail exchange on ESPN's Page 2 with writer Bill Simmons in August 2004.[4] In September 2005, Simmons interviewed him in his "Curious Guy" segment.[5] Though initially recognized for his rock writing, Klosterman has written extensively about sports and began contributing articles to Page 2 on November 8, 2005.[6] The ESPN site featured his week-long blog from Super Bowl XL in early 2006,[7] and a weekend-long blog covering his experience at the 2007 Final Four.[8]

In 2008, Klosterman spent the summer as the Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig's Institute for American Studies in Leipzig, Germany.

In 2009, Klosterman married journalist Melissa Maerz.[9]

In 2011, Klosterman joined Grantland.com, a sports and pop culture web site, which was conceived and led by ESPN's Bill Simmons. Klosterman will be a consulting editor.[10]

He also appeared in the first three episodes of the Adult Swim Web Feature "Carl's Stone Cold Lock of the Century of the Week", discussing the year's football games as an animated version of himself and trying (unsuccessfully) to plug his book as Carl cuts him off each time. He vanished after the third episode, with Carl giving the explanation of "He had to go do a book tour and also he didn't like how I kept calling him 'pencilneck'".

In 2012, Klosterman appeared in the documentary film Shut Up and Play the Hits, as the interviewer for an extended interview with the film's subject, LCD Soundsystem leader James Murphy that is featured throughout the film.

Books [edit]

Klosterman is the author of seven books and a set of cards:

Non-fiction [edit]

Essay collections [edit]

Novels [edit]

  • Downtown Owl: A Novel (2008), a novel describing life in the fictional town of Owl, North Dakota
  • The Visible Man (2011), a novel about a man who utilizes invisibility to observe others[13]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Maerz-Klosterman | INFORUM | Fargo, ND". Inforum. August 9, 2009. Retrieved January 8, 2010. 
  2. ^ "Tony DuShane | Chuck Klosterman — An Awesomely Long Interview". The Nervous Breakdown. 2011-11-12. Retrieved 2012-11-13. 
  3. ^ Klosterman, Chuck (April 27, 2003). "Everyone Knows This Is Somewhere". New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2010. 
  4. ^ Klosterman, Chuck and Simmons, Bill (August 17, 2004). "Face-Off: A late wake-up call". ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved November 3, 2009. 
  5. ^ Simmons, Bill (September 27, 2005). "Curious Guy: Chuck Klosterman". ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved November 3, 2009. 
  6. ^ Klosterman, Chuck (November 8, 2005). "Just keep my sports the same". ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved November 3, 2009. 
  7. ^ Klosterman, Chuck (January 30, 2006). "Dying a Super Death". ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved November 3, 2009. 
  8. ^ Klosterman, Chuck (March 30, 2007). "Taking aim at the Final Four". ESPN Internet Ventures. Retrieved November 3, 2009. 
  9. ^ Dresser, Ashley (September 30, 2009). "Klosterman and Maerz: two hipsters say "I do" | mndaily.com - Serving the University of Minnesota Community Since 1900". mndaily.com. Retrieved June 3, 2011. 
  10. ^ "All-Star Roster of Writers and Editors to Join New ESPN Web Site". Retrieved April 29, 2011. 
  11. ^ "HYPERtheticals by Chuck Klosterman". Random House. June 15, 2010. Retrieved June 3, 2011. 
  12. ^ "I Wear the Black Hat | Book by Chuck Klosterman - Simon & Schuster". Books.simonandschuster.com. Retrieved 2012-11-13. 
  13. ^ "The Visible Man". 

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chuck Klosterman
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Chuck Klosterman
Authority control
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