Walter Kirn has written a collection of short stories, My Hard Bargain, and several novels, including Thumbsucker (made into a film in 2005, starring Keanu Reeves and Vince Vaughn), Mission to America, and The Unbinding, and internet-only novel. He has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Vogue and Esquire and has served as an American cultural correspondent for the BBC. He was the 2008-9 Vare Non-fiction Writer in Residence at the University of Chicago.