Research Guides (LibGuides): Visiting Writers' Series LibGuide: Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Author Meghan Daum at the 2015 Texas Book Festival by Larry D. Moore under CC BY-SA 4.0

Meghan Daum's Website

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INTERVIEWS

SCUM INTERVIEWS: MEGHAN DAUM
Recent interview about Daum and her books.
Bookforum talks with Meghan Daum
An interview with Daum on her book, The Unspeakable.
News & Press - Meghan Daum
A list of reviews and interviews on Daum's official website.

PODCASTS

Longform Podcast #121: Meghan Daum
Podcast interview with Daum, start at 3:00.
Meghan Daum on being childless by choice
Interview with MPR from April 2015. Focuses on Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids.
Finding more podcasts ...

Many works by our Visiting Writers' Series authors are pulled from their normal places on the shelves and temporarily located in a special display in the Browsing Collection. This collection is located near the Information Commons service desk, next to the vending machines and newspapers.

When you look at an item's record in WorldCat Discovery, be sure to note whether the items is in the General Stacks (mostly 2nd floor) or the Browsing Collection (1st floor). If you have any questions about locating an item on the shelf, don't hesitate to ask us!

Remember - if we don't own it or our copy is currently checked out, you probably can still get a copy through PALShare or interlibrary loan! Learn more.

Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House by Meghan Daum
Chronicles the author's obsession with finding the perfect house, which culminated in her depleting her life savings to purchase a 900-square-foot bungalow with ancient plumbing and a junk-filled garage.
My Misspent Youth by Meghan Daum
"Now back in print, author of The Unspeakable Meghan Daum's acclaimed cult classic that revitalized the personal essay for a new generation of writers. Meghan Daum is one of the most celebrated nonfiction writers working today, widely recognized for the fresh, provocative approach with which she unearths hidden fault lines in the American landscape. From her well-remembered New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethereal, strangely old-fashioned allure of cyber relationships to her dazzlingly hilarious riff in Harper's about musical passions that give way to middle-brow paraphernalia, Daum delves into the center of things while closely examining the detritus that spills out along the way. She speaks to questions at the root of the contemporary experience, from the search for authenticity and interpersonal connection in a society defined by consumerism and media; to the disenchantment of working in a "glamour profession"; to the catastrophic effects of living among New York City's terminal hipsters. With precision and well-balanced irony, Daum implicates herself as readily as she does the targets that fascinate and horrify her. In this stirring and surprising collection we see the emergence of a talented new voice in American writing"-- Provided by publisher.
Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed by Meghan Daum (Editor, Introduction by)
Call Number: PALshare
One of the main topics of cultural conversation during the last decade was the supposed "fertility crisis," and whether modern women could figure out a way to have it all--a successful, demanding career and the required 2.3 children--before their biological clock stopped ticking. Now, however, conversation has turned to whether it's necessary to have it all (see Anne-Marie Slaughter) or, perhaps more controversial, whether children are really a requirement for a fulfilling life. The idea that some women and men prefer not to have children is often met with sharp criticism and incredulity by the public and mainstream media. In this provocative and controversial collection of essays, curated by writer Meghan Daum, thirteen acclaimed female writers explain why they have chosen to eschew motherhood. Contributors include Lionel Shriver, Sigrid Nunez, Kate Christensen, Elliott Holt, Geoff Dyer, and Tim Kreider, among others, who will give a unique perspective on the overwhelming cultural pressure of parenthood. This collection makes a smart and passionate case for why parenthood is not the only path to a happy, productive life, and takes our parent-centric, kid-fixated, baby-bump-patrolling culture to task in the process. In this book, that shadowy faction known as the childless-by-choice comes out into the light.
The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum
Call Number: Interlibrary Loan
"A master of the personal essay candidly explores love, death, and the counterfeit rituals of American life In her celebrated 2001 collection, My Misspent Youth, Meghan Daum offered a bold, witty, defining account of the artistic ambitions, financial anxieties, and mixed emotions of her generation. The Unspeakable is an equally bold and witty, but also a sadder and wiser, report from early middle age. It's a report tempered by hard times....But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital. Elsewhere, she writes searchingly about cultural nostalgia, Joni Mitchell, and the alternating heartbreak and liberation of choosing not to have children. Combining the piercing insight of Joan Didion with a warm humor reminiscent of Nora Ephron, Daum dissects our culture's most dangerous illusions, blind spots, and sentimentalities while retaining her own joy and compassion. Through it all, she dramatizes the search for an authentic self in a world where achieving an identity is never simple and never complete"-- Provided by publisher.

"Meghan Daum is a contributing writer for Harper's Bazaar. Her essays and articles have appeared in various periodicals, including the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, GQ, Vogue, and Women's Sports and Fitness.

Roxanne Gay noted in the New York Times [regarding Daum's book The Unspeakable]: 'There is no doubt Daum is a brilliant, incisive essayist. I would follow her words anywhere. As she returns to the question of what is unspeakable, she comes across as a woman who has made peace with the best and worst parts of herself. And maybe that is what is unspeakable in our culture--admitting to mere fallibility, humanity.' According to a Publishers Weekly critic, 'Daum is a smart and candid writer, but the collection's title promises a kind of deviance that she never quite delivers.' Nancy R. Ives, writing in Library Journal, was also impressed, and she declared that 'this book will appeal to memoir enthusiasts seeking an insightful reading experience that will entertain as well as challenge.' In the words of a Kirkus Reviews contributor, 'Daum's essays offer refreshing insight into the complexities of living an examined life in a world hostile to the multifaceted face of truth. An honest and humorously edgy collection.'"

WRITINGS:

Let the Trinkets Do the Talking: Essays, Abstractions, and Absurdities, Open City Books (New York, NY), 2001.
My Misspent Youth: Essays, Open City Books (New York, NY), 2001.
The Quality of Life Report (novel), Viking (New York, NY), 2003.
Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House (memoir), Alfred A. Knopf (New York, NY), 2010.
The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York, NY), 2014.
(Editor and author of introduction) Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids, Picador (New York, NY), 2015.

Source: "Meghan Daum." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2015. Biography in Context. Web. 25 May 2016.

Literary Sources This link opens in a new window
Use the author's name or one of her primary texts in the search box to find reviews and criticism of her work.

Library Journal Reviews
Click on the Library Journal link (use the one that has more full texts available) to access it through the Butler library. Use the author's name as your search term in the "search within the publication" box to find reviews of her work
New York Times Book Review
This link will take you to the New York Times Book Review hosted on the Literature Resource Center database. It includes issues from 2001 to present. You can search within the entire publication (box at top of page) or you can select a specific year from the drop-down menu. Older issues are available via other databases - ask a librarian for help accessing these issues.

Visiting Writers' Series LibGuide: Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

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