Sven Birkerts

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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Written by Sven Birkerts

A landscape with blue sky and clouds, reflected in a car’s side mirror is a person holding a camera.

essayMeaning 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

A pond in autumn with people rowing boats, surrounded by trees and distant city buildings under a clear blue sky.

essayBeauty 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

A black and white photo of the poet Seamus Heaney sitting in a cosy, cluttered study, smiling next to a desk filled with papers and books.

essayDeath

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

Illustration of a single black zip slider part on a pale teal background with a shadow cast to the right.

essayConsciousness 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