Biography
Chuck Klosterman is an American author and essayist known for his focus on American popular culture. He has written columns for Esquire and ESPN and authored "The Ethicist" column for The New York Times Magazine. Klosterman has published eleven books, including two novels and an essay collection. In 2002, he received the ASCAP Deems Taylor award for music criticism.
Born in Breckenridge, Minnesota, Klosterman is the youngest of seven children of Florence and William Klosterman, with German and Polish heritage. He was raised on a farm in Wyndmere, North Dakota, graduated from Wyndmere High School in 1990, and earned his degree from the University of North Dakota in 1994.
Following college, Klosterman worked as a journalist in Fargo, North Dakota, and later served as a reporter and arts critic for the Akron Beacon Journal in Ohio before relocating to New York City in 2002. Between 2002 and 2006, he was a senior writer and columnist at Spin. His writing has appeared in GQ, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. His articles have been included in anthologies such as Da Capo Press's Best Music Writing, Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. Although initially known for his rock music criticism, Klosterman has also written extensively on sports, contributing to ESPN's Page 2 starting November 8, 2005.
In 2012, Klosterman featured in the documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits, centered on the band LCD Soundsystem; his in-depth interview with frontman James Murphy is a key element of the film.
In 2015, he appeared in episodes 6 and 7 of the first season of IFC's Documentary Now! as a music critic for the fictional group "The Blue Jean Committee."
His eighth book, I Wear the Black Hat, was released in 2013 and explores the complexities of villainy in a media-saturated culture. His ninth book, the bestseller But What If We're Wrong? Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past, published on June 7, 2016, examines how the present might be viewed by future generations as history.
