Director, writing seminars; Editor, Bennington College, Vermont
Sven Birkerts is the former director of the Bennington Writing Seminars. He is the author of The Gutenberg Elegies, and, more recently, Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age (2015) and The Other Walk: Essays (2011).
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Meaning and the good life
On serendipity
A decades-long conversation between friends about books, photography and life, exploring what it is to know, to look, to see
Sven Birkerts & Christopher Benfey
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Beauty and aesthetics
The unearned gift
How does it feel when writer’s block finally gives way, and what is it that brings back the grace of creation?
Sven Birkerts
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Death
Last words
As we mourn the poet, do we not mourn the loss of what he had in his keeping: a way of living that served us for aeons?
Sven Birkerts
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Consciousness and altered states
The art of attention
The peculiar vividness of the world becomes clear when we slow down and attend, learning to see all things anew
Sven Birkerts