Daniel Akst

Daniel Akst is an author, critic and journalist who has written for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe and other leading publications. He is the author of four previous books of fiction and nonfiction, including the novel St. Burl’s Obituary, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Akst has worked on staff at the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, and Newsday and served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. He is a visiting instructor in the humanities at Bard College, where he’s also taught as part of the Bard Prison Initiative. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and lives in New York’s bucolic Hudson Valley.