The Integrated Program in Humane Studies welcomes Michael W. Clune, author of the novel "Pan," to Kenyon.
Clune writes about memory, literature, money and music. Sometimes he works in creative nonfiction and fiction; some problems require academic methods. He believes that literary style isn’t decoration but a form of knowledge.
Michael's creative books include his new novel "Pan" (Penguin, 2025) and a work of creative nonfiction, "Gamelife" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015). The tenth anniversary edition of his memoir "White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin" appeared in 2023 from McNally Editions.
Clune's most recent critical book is "A Defense of Judgment" (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Other monographs include "Writing Against Time" (Stanford University Press, 2013) and "American Literature and the Free Market" (Cambridge University Press, 2010).
His essays have appeared in Harper’s — where he is a contributing editor — Critical Inquiry, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The Atlantic, Best American Essays, PMLA and elsewhere. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Guggenheim and Mellon Foundations, and his books have appeared on “best of the year” lists from The New Yorker, NPR and elsewhere.
Clune is a professor at the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civils, Culture, and Society at The Ohio State University.
Please join us in the Community Foundation Theater, located in Gund Gallery, on Thursday, Jan. 22, at 4 p.m.