Lee Siegel (cultural Critic) - National Coverage

National Coverage

In 2002, Siegel received the National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism. The citation lauded Siegel's essays as "models of original thinking and passionate writing... tough-minded yet generous criticism is prose of uncommon power--work that dazzles readers by drawing them into the play of ideas and the enjoyment of lively, committed debate." Siegel has written several essays for art catalogues, and several introductions to reprinted classics: D. H. Lawrence's The Lost Girl, Gershom Scholem's Story of a Friendship, and Janet Malcolm's In the Freud Archives. He is the author of four books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination (2006), Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television (2007), Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob (2008), and Are You Serious? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly (2011, ISBN 978-0-06-176603-9), praised by The New York Times Book Review as "the perfervid forays of a Victorian gentleman collector who's on the hunt through every corner of Western culture for serious and unserious specimens," in a review that went on to characterize Siegel as "a tireless adversary, battling wrong-headed people and worn-out ideas." Siegel is also the author of "Harvard Is Burning."

Siegel has been the book critic for The Nation, art critic for Slate, television critic for and senior editor of The New Republic, staff writer for Talk magazine, staff writer for Harper's, contributing writer for The Los Angeles Times Book Review, associate editor of Raritan, senior columnist for The Daily Beast, and weekly columnist for The New York Observer. In 2011, Siegel served as one of three judges for the PEN John K. Galbraith Award.