Michael Dirda

Michael Dirda at the 2008 Texas Book Festival.

Michael Dirda (born 1948), a Fulbright Fellowship recipient, is a Pulitzer Prize–winning book critic for the Washington Post.

Career

Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree, Dirda took a Ph.D. from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the Washington Post; in 1993 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his criticism.^[1] Currently, he writes for the "Book World" section of the Post.^[2]

Works

Two collections of Dirda's literary journalism have been published: Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-253-33824-7) and Bound to Please (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005; ISBN 0-393-05757-7). He has also written Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life (New York: Henry Holt, 2005; ISBN 0-8050-7877-0), Classics for Pleasure (Orlando: Harcourt, 2007; ISBN 0-151-01251-2), On Conan Doyle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011; ISBN 0-691-15135-0), and the autobiographical An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland (New York: W. W. Norton, 2003; ISBN 0-393-05756-9).^[3]

Family

Dirda lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Marian, and their cat. They have three sons: Christopher (b. 1984), Michael (b. 1987), and Nathaniel (b. 1990).

See also

• Ron Charles
• Jonathan Yardley

References

1. ^ Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich; Fischer, Erika J. (2002). Complete Biographical Encyclopedia of Pulitzer Prize Winners, 1917–2000. The Pulitzer Prize Archive. 16. Munich: K. G. Saur. p. 58. ISBN 3-598-30186-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=-2o4Ywn4LJwC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58#v=onepage&q=&f=false. Retrieved 21 January 2010. 
2. ^ Dirda, Michael (25 March 2005). "XXX". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/03/25/LI2005032502159.html. Retrieved 05 October 2010. 
3. ^ "Local Author Bibliography: Michael Dirda". Lorain Public Library System. http://www.lorain.lib.oh.us/author_bibliography.aspx?PID=71&ID=3. Retrieved 21 January 2010. 

External links

• Book World
• Michael Dirda "Style" section archive at The Washington Post
• Michael Dirda book review archive at The Washington Post
• Michael Dirda archive from The New York Review of Books
• "Catalog Reading", by Sam Sacks. Review of Michael Dirda's Classics for Pleasure

Persondata
Name	Dirda, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1948
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death