Walter Kirn

In the summer of 1998, Walter Kirn—then an aspiring novelist—set out on a peculiar, fateful errand: to personally deliver a crippled hunting dog from his home in Montana to the New York apartment of one Clark Rockefeller, a secretive young banker and art collector who had adopted the dog over the Internet. Thus began a 15-year relationship that drew Kirn into the world of an eccentric man who ultimately would be revealed as an impostor, child kidnapper, and murderer. Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade is Kirn’s story of being duped by a real-life Mr. Ripley.

John Sides says that at conventions, a journalist’s job is to measure how well politicians have riled up their supporters. But, polls take time, while coverage of speeches starts minutes after the speakers open their mouths. So how should journalists fill the void?  Should they be striving, as they do, to be the nation’s emotional first responders?  Novelist Walter Kirn covered the DNC for The New Republic. He said that watching reporters take the emotional temperature of the room was an alienating experience.

It seems like every Republican presidential campaign right now is doubling as a book tour (Michele Bachmann’s Core of Conviction: My Story, Ron Paul’s Liberty Defined, Rick Perry’s Fe...

As events unfolded in Arizona this week, novelist Walter Kirn turned to Twitter to express what he was seeing and feeling. Kirn tells Kurt he fears that our digital world is breedin...

Like the rest of the twitterati,  the novelist Walter Kirn quickly tried to make sense of the Arizona shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and several others.

As events unfolded, Kirn’s tweets stood out. By Sunday night, Kirn realized the uncanny similarities alleged shooter Jarred Loughner shared with Kent Selkirk, the socially-inept-loner-on-the-internet protagonist of Kirn’s novel, The Unbinding.

“It was a sense of recognition,” Kirn told Studio 360's Kurt Andersen. “The forces that created this Loughner may be spawning more of him.”

Oscar-nominated film, "Up in the Air," tells a story made for the recession. George Clooney plays a corporate grim reaper, flying all over the country to lay off his clients' employees. Director Jason Reitman ("Juno") based it on the 2001 novel by

The new movie "Up in the Air" tells a story tailor-made for our recessionary times. George Clooney plays a corporate grim reaper, whose job it is to fly to various cities and fire people. Director Jason Reitman ("Juno") based it on the 2001 ...

Walter Kirn thinks the American education system focuses far too much on standardized tests, extracurricular activities and class rankings at the expense of intellectual fulfillment. In his book, Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever, Kirn looks at the intellectual costs of our current education system.

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Kurt Andersen and novelist Walter Kirn talk about the artistic inspirations and outcomes of travel.

Kirn is the author of Up in the Air, a satire about a business traveler whose ambition is to earn his millionth frequent flyer mile. He is also the literary editor for GQ and a ...