American · b. 1972
Chuck Klosterman is an American writer and cultural critic. He was born in 1972 and grew up on a farm in Wyndmere, North Dakota. After studying journalism at the University of North Dakota, he worked as a newspaper reporter in Fargo and Akron before moving to New York to write for Spin and later Esquire. His first book, Fargo Rock City (2001), was a memoir of growing up as a heavy metal fan in rural North Dakota. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (2003) made him a bestselling essayist. His later books include Killing Yourself to Live, Chuck Klosterman IV, Eating the Dinosaur, I Wear the Black Hat, But What If We're Wrong?, and The Nineties. He also wrote the novels Downtown Owl and The Visible Man. He served as The Ethicist columnist for The New York Times Magazine and writes about music, sports, television and film. His essays treat pop culture as serious material and helped shape the personal, ironic style of later pop criticism.