Walter Kirn was born in Ohio and grew up in Minnesota. After
Princeton and Oxford he embarked on a literary career in New
York media, reviewing books and writing for New York
Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, Time, The New
Republic, and Harper’s. Kirn’s 2001 novel Up in the Air was
made into the critically-acclaimed 2009 film starring George
Clooney. His memoir Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of
an Overachiever chronicles his own adventure going from rural
Minnesota to the Ivy League. Lately, he co-hosts the podcast
America This Week and is the co-founder of County Highway, a new print magazine about America
in the form of a nineteenth-century newspaper.