Walter Kirn is a novelist, critic, editor, and essayist who lives in Los Angles and Montana. He is the National Correspondent for the New Republic and an editor at large for Byliner.Com. A former contributing editor at Time and Vanity Fair and the former literary editor of GQ, his work has appeared in numerous national magazines and newspapers, including the New Yorker, the New York Times, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Travel and Leisure, and New York, where he was the chief book critic for many years. His book reviews have also appeared regularly on Slate.com and in The New york Times Sunday Book Review.

Kirn’s highly praised and widely-translated books include five novels, a short story collection (My Hard Bargain), and a memoir (Lost in the Meritocracy). His best known novel is Up in The Air, which was made into the Oscar-nominated movie of the same title. His autobiographical novel, Thumbsucker, was also made into a feature film, and his more recent novel, Mission to America, is in the process of being developed for the screen. Over the years, Kirn has appeared regularly on national television (The Colbert Report; Real Time with Bill Maher, etc.) to discuss both his own work and current events. He is a graduate of Princeton and Oxford Universities and has two children.