Keith Gessen

Keith Gessen

Keith Gessen is a Russian-born American novelist, journalist, and co-editor of a thrice-yearly magazine of literature, politics, and culture based in New York City. He is also an assistant professor of journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In 2008 he was named a 5 under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation.

Gessen has written about Russia for The New Yorker, The London Review of Books, The Atlantic, and the New York Review of Books. Gessen’s first novel, All the Sad Young Literary Men, was published in April 2008. In 2010, Gessen edited and introduced Diary of a Very Bad Year: Confessions of an Anonymous Hedge Fund Manager, a book about the financial crisis. In 2011, Gessen became involved in the Occupy Movement in New York City. He co-edited the OCCUPY! Gazette. On November 17, 2011, Gessen was arrested by the New York City police while covering and participating in an Occupy Wall Street protest at the New York Stock Exchange. He wrote about his experience of arrest for The New Yorker. In 2015, Gessen co-edited City by City: Dispatches from the American Metropolis which was named a Best Summer Read of 2015 by Publishers Weekly.