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Biography
American

David Shields

1956

David Shields is an American writer and literary critic whose Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (2010) — an argument for the abolition of the boundary between fiction and non-fiction — became one of the most debated works of literary criticism of the twenty-first century. His hybrid, collage-based books challenge conventional literary form.

Past sales0
PeriodContemporary
NationalityAmerican
1. Biography

A short life of the author

David Shields (b. 22 July 1956) was born in Los Angeles. He studied at Brown University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He teaches at the University of Washington.

Life and Career

Shields began as a conventional fiction writer — Heroes (1984), Dead Languages (1989) — before moving toward hybrid forms that blur the boundary between fiction, essay, memoir, and criticism.

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead (2008) — a meditation on mortality structured around his father’s aging body — and Reality Hunger: A Manifesto (2010) — a collage of 618 numbered passages arguing that the future of literature lies in the dissolution of genre boundaries — made him one of the most provocative figures in American literary culture.

Reality Hunger was both celebrated and attacked: proponents saw it as a necessary challenge to the dominance of the conventional novel; critics saw it as a justification for plagiarism and intellectual laziness.

Major Works and Themes

Shields writes about authenticity, form, the self, and the crisis of fiction in an age saturated with non-fictional narrative. His work is deliberately provocative and formally restless.

Key Works

  • Reality Hunger (2010)
  • The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead (2008)

Collecting Shields

Reality Hunger first edition (Knopf, 2010) brings $15–$25. Shields is a figure of literary-critical importance rather than a collectors’ favourite.