Dave Eggers

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Dave Eggers
Eggers at the 2007 Brooklyn Book Festival
Born	March 12, 1970 (1970-03-12) (age 39) Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Pen name	Daniel O'Mara, Lucy Thomas, Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey, others
Occupation	writer, editor, publisher
Nationality	United States
Genres	fiction, memoir, humor
Official website

Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher.

Contents 1 Life 2 Literary work 3 Musical contributions 4 Bibliography 4.1 Nonfiction 4.2 Fiction 4.3 Humor books 4.4 Other 4.5 As editor or contributor (non-McSweeney's publications) 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Life

Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts, one of four siblings. His father was an attorney and his mother a school teacher. When Eggers was still a child, the family moved to the upscale suburb of Lake Forest, near Chicago. He attended high school there, and was a classmate of the actor Vince Vaughn.^[1]

Eggers attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, intending to get a degree in journalism,^[2] but his studies were interrupted by the deaths of both of his parents in 1991, his mother from stomach cancer and his father from brain and lung cancer. These events were chronicled in his first book, the lightly fictionalized A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. At the time, Eggers was 21, and his younger brother, Christopher ("Toph") was 8 years old. The two eldest siblings, Bill and Beth, were unable to commit to the care of Toph; his older brother had a full-time job and his sister was enrolled in law school. As a result, Eggers took responsibility for raising Toph.

Eggers left the University of Illinois and moved to Berkeley, California with his girlfriend Kirsten and his brother. They initially moved in with Eggers' sister Beth and her roommate, but eventually found a place in another part of town, which they paid for with money left to them by their parents. Toph attended a small private school, and Eggers did temp work and freelance graphic design for a local newspaper. Eventually, with his friend David Moodie, he took over a local free newspaper titled Cups. This gradually evolved into the satirical magazine, Might.

Eggers currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is married to Vendela Vida, also a writer. ^[3] In October 2005, Vida gave birth to a daughter, October Adelaide Eggers Vida. They had a son in December 2008.^[4]

Eggers's elder brother, Bill, is a researcher who has worked for several conservative think tanks, doing research on privatization.^[5] Eggers' sister, Beth, claimed that Eggers grossly understated her role in raising Toph and made use of her journals in writing A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius without compensation.^[6] She later recanted her claims in a posting on her brother's own website McSweeney's Internet Tendency, referring to the incident as "a really terrible LaToya Jackson moment".^[7] On March 1, 2002, the New York Post reported that Beth, then a lawyer in Modesto, California, had committed suicide.^[8] Eggers briefly spoke about his sister's death during a 2002 fan interview for McSweeney's.^[9]

He was one of three 2008 TED Prize recipients.^[10] His TED Prize wish: for community members to personally engage with local public schools.^[11][12]

[edit] Literary work

Wikinews has related news: 2007 Brooklyn Book Festival showcases borough's continued literary tradition

Eggers began writing as a Salon.com editor and founded Might magazine, while also writing a comic strip called Smarter Feller (originally Swell, then Smart Feller) for SF Weekly.^[13] His first book was a memoir (with fictional elements), A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000), which focused on the author's struggle to raise his younger brother in San Francisco following the deaths of both of their parents. The book quickly became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. The memoir was praised for its originality, idiosyncratic self-referencing, and for several innovative stylistic elements. Early printings of the 2001 trade-paperback edition were published with a lengthy, apologetic postscript entitled, Mistakes We Knew We Were Making.

In 2002, Eggers published his first novel, You Shall Know Our Velocity, a story about a frustrating attempt to give away money to deserving people while haphazardly traveling the globe. An expanded and revised version was released as Sacrament in 2003 and retitled You Shall Know Our Velocity! for its Vintage imprint distribution. He has since published a collection of short stories, How We Are Hungry, and three politically themed serials for Salon.com.^[14]

In November 2005, Eggers published Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated, a book of interviews with former prisoners sentenced to death and later exonerated. The book was compiled with Lola Vollen, "a physician specializing in the aftermath of large-scale human rights abuses" and "a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley's Institute of International Studies and a practicing clinician".^[15] Lawyer novelist Scott Turow wrote the introduction to Surviving Justice. Eggers's most recent novel, What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (McSweeney's, 2006), was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.^[16] Eggers also edits the Best American Nonrequired Reading series, an annual anthology of short stories, essays, journalism, satire, and alternative comics.

Eggers founded McSweeney's, an independent publishing house. McSweeney's produces a quarterly literary journal, Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, first published in 1998; a monthly journal, The Believer, which debuted in 2003 and is edited by Eggers' wife, Vendela; and, beginning in 2005, a quarterly DVD magazine, Wholphin. Other works include The Future Dictionary of America, Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans, and the "Dr. and Mr. Haggis-On-Whey" children's books of literary nonsense, which Eggers writes with his younger brother. Ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Eggers wrote an essay about the U.S. national team and soccer in the United States for The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, a book published with aid of the journal Granta which contained essays about each competing team in the tournament.

In 2002, Eggers and educator Nínive Clements Calegari co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for kids ages 6-18 in San Francisco. It has since grown into seven chapters across the country: Los Angeles, New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Boston, all under the auspices of the nonprofit organization 826 National.^[17] In 2006, he appeared at a series of fundraising events, dubbed the Revenge of the Book–Eaters tour, to support these programs. The Chicago show, at the Park West theatre, featured Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard. Other performers on the tour included Sufjan Stevens, Jon Stewart, Davy Rothbart, and David Byrne.^[18] In September 2007, the Heinz Family Foundation awarded Eggers a $250,000 Heinz Award (given to recognize "extraordinary achievements by individuals") in the Arts and Humanities.^[19] In accordance with Eggers's wishes, the award money was all given to 826 National.^[20]

Eggers was one of the original contributors to ESPN The Magazine and helped create its section titled "The Jump". He also acted as the first "Answer Guy", a column that still runs (without his involvement) in the publication.^[21]

[edit] Musical contributions

• Eggers designed the artwork for Thrice's album Vheissu.^[22]
• Eggers can be heard talking with Spike Jonze during "The Horrible Fanfare/Landslide/Exoskeleton", the final track on Beck's 2006 album The Information. The third section of the track features Eggers and Jonze responding to Beck's question, "What would the ultimate record that ever could possibly be made sound like?"^[23]
• Eggers contributed lyrics to the song, "The Ghost of Rita Gonzolo", on One Ring Zero's album As Smart as We Are (2004).

[edit] Bibliography

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Dave Eggers

[edit] Nonfiction

• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000)
• Teachers Have It Easy: The Big Sacrifices and Small Salaries of America's Teachers (co-authored with Daniel Moulthrop and Nínive Clements Calegari) (2005)
• Surviving Justice: America's Wrongfully Convicted and Exonerated (co-compiled with Lola Vollen; with an introduction by Scott Turow) (2005)
• Zeitoun (2009)

[edit] Fiction

• You Shall Know Our Velocity (novel) (2002)
• Sacrament (revised and expanded version of You Shall Know Our Velocity) (2003)
• The Unforbidden is Compulsory; or, Optimism (novella) (2004)
• How We Are Hungry (short stories) (2004)
• Short Short Stories (short stories, part of the Pocket Penguin series) (2005)
• What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (novel) (2006)
• How the Water Feels to the Fishes (short stories; part of One Hundred and Forty-Five Stories in a Small Box) (2007)
• The Wild Things (forthcoming novel inspired by Where the Wild Things Are, to be released alongside the film) (October, 2009)

[edit] Humor books

• Giraffes? Giraffes! (as Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey, co-authored with Christopher Eggers) (2003)
• Your Disgusting Head (as Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey, co-authored with Christopher Eggers) (2004)
• Animals of the Ocean, in Particular the Giant Squid (as Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey, co-authored with Christopher Eggers) (2006)
• Cold Fusion (as Dr. and Mr. Doris Haggis-On-Whey, co-authored with Christopher Eggers) (2009)

[edit] Other

• Jokes Told in Heaven About Babies (as Lucy Thomas) (2003)
• Salon.com serials: "The Unforbidden Is Compulsory Or, Optimism", "The Fishmonger Returns", and "New Hampshire Is for Lovers" (2004)
• Screenplay for Away We Go, cowritten with wife Vendela Vida (2009)
• Screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are, cowritten with director Spike Jonze (2009)

[edit] As editor or contributor (non-McSweeney's publications)

• Speaking with the Angel: Original Stories, edited by Nick Hornby (contributor) (2000)
• When Penguins Attack, by Tom Tomorrow (introduction) (2000)
• The Onion Ad Nauseam: The Complete News Archives, Volume 13 (introduction) (2002)
• The O. Henry Prize Stories 2002 (selected by, with Joyce Carol Oates and Colson Whitehead) (2002)
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2002 (editor, with Michael Cart) (2002)
• The Tenants of Moonbloom, by Edward Lewis Wallant (reissue of Wallant's 1963 novel with introduction) (2003)
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2003 (editor; introduction by Zadie Smith) (2003)
• Happy Baby by Stephen Elliott (editor; designed by McSweeney's and published and distributed by MacAdam/Cage) (2004)
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2004 (editor; introduction by Viggo Mortensen) (2004)
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 (editor; introduction by Beck) (2005)
• Penguin Classics edition of Forty Stories by Donald Barthelme (introduction) (2005)
• The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, edited by Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey (contributor) (2006)
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006 (editor; introduction by Matt Groening) (2006)
• Infinite Jest (introduction to 10th anniversary edition) (2006)
• John Currin (contributor; additional text by John Currin, Norman Bryson, and Alison Gingeras) (2006)
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007 (editor; introduction by Sufjan Stevens) (2007)
• The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008 (editor; introduction by Judy Blume) (2008)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dave Eggers

• Author page on the McSweeney's website (features a detailed bibliography)
• 826 National
• Radio Interview on Bookworm, February 1, 2007
• Interview about 826 National on Public School Insights, Posted May 20, 2008
• TED Prize Wish: Dave Eggers makes his TED Prize wish: Once Upon a School at TED in 2008