Sven Birkerts (b. September 21, 1951, Pontiac, Michigan) is an American essayist and literary critic of Latvian ancestry best known for The Gutenberg Elegies, his book on the decline of reading due to the overwhelming advance of the Internet and other technologies of the "electronic culture." He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1973, is currently a lecturer in English at Mount Holyoke College, and is the editor of AGNI, the literary journal.

Books

• An Artificial Wilderness: Essays on 20th Century Literature. (1987). New York: William Morrow.
• The Electric Life: Essays on Modern Poetry. (1989). New York: William Morrow.
• American Energies: Essays on Fiction. (1992). New York: William Morrow.
• The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age. (1994). Boston: Faber and Faber.
• Readings. (1999). St. Paul, MN: Graywolf Press.
• My Sky Blue Trades: Growing Up Counter in a Contrary Time. (2002). New York: Viking.