Sven Birkerts (b. September 21, 1951, Pontiac, Michigan) is an American essayist and literary critic of Latvian ancestry. He is best known for his book The Gutenberg Elegies, which posits a decline in reading due to the overwhelming advances of the Internet and other technologies of the "electronic culture." September 21 is the 264th day of the year (265th in leap years). ... 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Pontiac is a city located in Oakland County, Michigan. ... An essayist is an author who writes compositions which can be about any particular subject. ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ...

Birkerts graduated from Cranbrook Kingswood School and then from the University of Michigan in 1973. He has taught writing at Harvard University, Emerson College, Amherst College, and most recently at Mount Holyoke College. Birkerts is currently a member of the core faculty of the Bennington College Writing Seminars and is the editor of AGNI, the literary journal [1] & [2]. This article is about the private secondary school in the United States; For alternate uses, including other Cranbrook Schools, see Cranbrook (disambiguation). ... University of Michigan, Ann Arbor The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor is a public coeducational university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... Emerson College was founded in 1880 as a school of oratory, in Boston, Massachusetts. ... Amherst College is an independent liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. It is the third oldest college in Massachusetts. ... Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, is the oldest womens college in the United States, and the oldest continuing institution of womens higher education in the world. ... Bennington College Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont. ... The word Agni can have these meanings:- A fire-god in three religions: described below. ...

Books

• An Artificial Wilderness: Essays on 20th Century Literature. (1987). New York: William Morrow.
• The Electric Life: Essays on Modern Poetry. (1989). New York: William Morrow.
• American Energies: Essays on Fiction. (1992). New York: William Morrow.
• The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. (1994). Boston: Faber and Faber.
• Readings. (1999). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press.
• My Sky Blue Trades: Growing Up Counter in a Contrary Time. (2002). New York: Viking.