Media Center: 'How Literature Saved My Life' by David Shields

WHO: David Shields

WHAT: HOW LITERATURE SAVED MY LIFE

WHEN: Published by Knopf February 8, 2013

WHERE: The author lives in Seattle.

WHY:
“A work of contradictions, subversions, depression, humor and singular awareness.
“Essayist and fiction writer David Shields, who stuttered throughout childhood, initially regarded writing as an ideal outlet; now, in his mid-50s, he writes ‘to feel as if, to the degree anyone can know anyone else,’ he has connected with his readers. With a frequently self-deprecating yet engaging tone, the author employs the act of accrual in hopes of guarding against ‘human loneliness,’ and in doing so, creates a personal, modern version of the medieval commonplace book.
“For the bibliophile, references to authors such as Ben Lerner, E.M. Cioran, Jonathan Safran Foer, Annie Dillard, Sarah Manguso and David Foster Wallace, among others, will appeal as voices intersecting on the page. For fellow creative-writing practitioners, how Shield fashions his own anxieties and persona into brief essays provides an alternative model for writing on selfhood. Concerned as much with methods of construction and questions of genre as with subject, Shields meters out nuggets of revelation amid explications of both classical and popular subjects, from Prometheus to Spider-Man.
“The book defies easy categorization: It is both a paean to the power of language and a confrontation with the knowledge that literature can’t, after all, fulfill deeper existential needs.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS

Media Resources:
About the book | Author bio | Read an excerpt | Download the jacket or the author photo

Publicist for this title:
Kathy Zuckerman | 212-572-2105 | kzuckerman@randomhouse.com