Walter Kirn is a novelist, essayist, and book critic who lives in Livingston, Montana. His works of fiction include My Hard Bargain (stories), Thumbsucker (the basis of the 2003 movie) and Up in the Air (currently being developed for the screen by director Jason Reitman). Kirn’s serial novel, The Unbinding, was composed on the Internet for Slate Magazine in 2006 and published in paper form in 2007. He contributes essays to such periodicals as