David Foster Wallace: podcast appearances and interviews

David Foster Wallace was an American writer and professor known for his novels, short stories, and essays. His most recognized work is the 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which was named one of the 100 best English-language novels published between 1923 and 2005 by Time magazine. Wallace grew up in Illinois and graduated from Amherst College and the University of Arizona. His debut novel, The Broom of the System, was adapted from his honors thesis at Amherst. Throughout his career, Wallace deliberately avoided postmodern tropes like irony and metafiction, perceiving them as sources of despair and stagnation in contemporary American culture.

Wallace published three short story collections: Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Oblivion: Stories. His essays and stories appeared in publications such as The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, and three collections of essays were compiled into books including A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Consider the Lobster, and Both Flesh and Not. He taught English and creative writing at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. Wallace’s influence and innovative approach to literature have been recognized widely.

He struggled with depression for many years and died by suicide in 2008 at the age of 46. His posthumous and unfinished novel, The Pale King, was published in 2011 and was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.