My Last Eight Thousand Days: An American Male in His Seventies - Paperback

by Lee Gutkind (Author)

As founding editor of Creative Nonfiction and architect of the genre, Lee Gutkind played a crucial role in establishing literary, narrative nonfiction in the marketplace and in the academy. A longstanding advocate of New Journalism, he has reported on a wide range of issues--robots and artificial intelligence, mental illness, organ transplants, veterinarians and animals, baseball, motorcycle enthusiasts--and explored them all with his unique voice and approach.

In My Last Eight Thousand Days, Gutkind turns his notepad and tape recorder inward, using his skills as an immersion journalist to perform a deep dive on himself. Here, he offers a memoir of his life as a journalist, editor, husband, father, and Pittsburgh native, not only recounting his many triumphs, but also exposing his missteps and challenges. The overarching concern that frames these brave, often confessional stories, is his obsession and fascination with aging: how aging provoked anxieties and unearthed long-rooted tensions, and how he came to accept, even enjoy, his mental and physical decline. Gutkind documents the realities of aging with the characteristically blunt, melancholic wit and authenticity that drive the quiet force of all his work.

Author Biography

LEE GUTKIND is the author and editor of more than thirty books, including You Can't Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction and Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather, and the award-winning Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation. He has appeared on many national radio and televisions shows, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Good Morning America, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and at Arizona State University.