A conversation with authors Nicholas Birns and John Reed

About the authors:

Nicholas Birns is the editor of Antipodes: A Global Journal of Australian/NZ Literature. He is the author of Understanding Anthony Powell (University of South Carolina Press, 2004) and the co-editor of A Companion to Australian Literature Since 1900 (Camden House, 2007), a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book for 2008. His Theory After Theory: An Intellectual History of Literary Theory From 1950 to the Early 21st Century appeared from Broadview in 2010.

His other books include Barbarian Memory: The Legacy of Early Medieval History in Early Modern Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead (Sydney University Press in 2015). He has contributed to The New York Times Book Review, The Hollins Critic, Exemplaria, MLQ, and Partial Answers. Nicolas teaches literature courses at NYUSPS in the Center for Applied Liberal Arts.

John Reed, author of A Still Small Voice (Delacorte), The Whole (Simon & Schuster / MTV Books), the SPD bestseller, Snowball's Chance (Roof / Melville House), All The World's A Grave: A New Play By William Shakespeare (Penguin / Plume), Tales of Woe (MTV Press), Free Boat: Collected Lies and Love Poems (C&R Press), A Drama In Time: The New School Century (Profile), and The Family Dolls: A Manson Paper + Play Book (Outpost19); MFA in Creative Writing, Columbia University (fellowship); published in (selected) ElectricLit, the Brooklyn Rail, Tin House, Paper Magazine, Artforum, Hyperallergic, Bomb Magazine, Art in America, the Los Angeles Times, the Believer, the Rumpus, Observer, the PEN Poetry Series, the Daily Beast, Gawker, Slate, the Paris Review, the Times Literary Supplement, the Wall Street Journal, Vice, The New York Times, Harpers, Rolling Stone; anthologized in (selected) Best American Essays (Houghton Mifflin); works translated and performed worldwide; films distinguished at festivals internationally; two-term board member of the National Book Critics Circle; he is an Associate Professor and the Director of the MFA in Creative Writing at The New School University.