Sven Birkerts, editor of the AGNI Review, has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is one of two BU professors elected to the Academy this year (the other being Jim Collins of ENG). Birkerts has been editor of AGNI, which is affiliated with the CAS Creative Writing Program, since July 2002. He is the author of nine books, including An Artificial Wilderness: Essays on 20th Century Literature (William Morrow) and Reading Life (Graywolf, 2007). He has also edited three books: Tolstoy’s Dictaphone: Writers and the Muse (Graywolf), Writing Well (with Donald Hall) and The Evolving Canon (Allyn & Bacon).
In addition to being a prolific writer and editor, Birkerts has contributed to the literary dialogue through reviews of others’ work. He has reviewed regularly for The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, Esquire, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Mirabella, Parnassus, The Yale Review, and other publications. He has taught writing at Harvard University, Emerson College, Amherst College, and Mt. Holyoke College, and is director of the graduate Bennington Writing Seminars. Birkerts lives in Arlington with his wife and two children.