David Shields (Author)

David Shields is a best-selling American writer of fiction and non-fiction. He is also a filmmaker and writing teacher. His perspectives on narrative, on the relationship between writing and reality, and on freedom of ideas make up the foundations of the book’s overall arguments, even though much of the text is not actually of his own writing. The sensibility behind the inclusion and juxtaposition of the other material, its structuring and shaping of meaning, are all defined by his beliefs in the fundamental connection between the self and any form of writing. That sensibility is also defined by his beliefs about how the creation of any form of art, but particularly of writing, is the result of making use of some aspect of another artist’s work. In that sense, he has created this work by practicing what he preaches, and in a way...