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Dan Schneider (writer)

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For other people with the same name, see Dan Schneider.

Dan Schneider
Born1965
Minnesota, U.S.
OccupationWriter
EducationFranklin K. Lane High School
Period1984–present
GenrePoetry, criticism, fiction
SpouseJessica Schneider

Dan Schneider (born 1965) is an American poet and critic of literature and film who runs the criticism and literary website Cosmoetica.

Biography

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Schneider was born in 1965 to a family from Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin. He is of Norwegian ancestry. His parents placed him for adoption, and he grew up with a working-class family in the Glendale-Ridgewood neighborhoods of Queens, New York. He claimed to have witnessed a murder at age six. He attended Franklin K. Lane High School, where he was part of a gang. After graduating from high school, he began writing poetry to court women while he was working as a dairy manager in a Finast grocery store.[1] In 1987, he paid to print 2,000 copies of his first poetry book, Od Infinitum.[2][1]

In 1991, he and his adopted mother moved to Minnesota after learning that his biological family lived there, although his birth mother had died.[1] While living in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Schneider became involved in local poetry readings and poetry slams. He heavily criticized the careerism among poets in the Twin Cities, and journalist Brad Zellar noted that Schneider's criticisms sometimes involved personal attacks and public confrontations, including an instance in which Schneider interrupted an event for Robert Bly.[1] He was kicked out of a local poetry group and also banned from some poetry readings and venues because of his outbursts and interruptions during events.[3]

Schneider's other writings have been published in outlets including Monsters and Critics,[4] HackWriters,[5] BlogCritics,[6] 10,000 Monkeys, Dublin Quarterly, Culture Vulture, No Ripcord Magazine, and CriticalCritics.com.[citation needed] In 2008, the literature textbook Contemporary Fiction: The Novel Since 1990 excerpted Schneider's negative review of British author Zadie Smith's novel White Teeth for HackWriters alongside a positive review from The New York Times as part of a discussion assignment on divided opinions among book reviewers.[5]

Cosmoetica website

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Schneider runs the website Cosmoetica, which the Dictionary of Midwestern Literature included in a list of several significant Illinois-based literary magazines outside of academia.[7] New York Times poetry columnist David Orr featured the site in the 2004 article "Where to Find Digital Lit" alongside 16 other online-only literary sites, including Bookslut, FanFiction.net, and Foetry.com.[8]

Schneider also publishes interviews on his site with authors, poets, scientists and others such as James Berardinelli,[9] James Emanuel,[10] and Chris Impey.[6] In the introduction to a special edition of Fire!!! The Multimedia Journal of Black Studies, Ronald Bailey noted Schneider's interview with Emanuel as an "important source" on the poet.[11] An Emanuel quote from the interview also appeared in the poet's New York Times obituary.[12]

Critical response

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Cyril Wong praised him in the Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, writing "I think it is high time every lover of contemporary poetry reads Dan Schneider's essays on [Cosmoetica]."[13] Writing in The New York Times, David Orr said of Schneider and Cosmoetica: "If you were looking for someone willing to call T. S. Eliot '1 of the most grossly overrated writers in the history of the world, & the English language,' Schneider is your man. His site includes similarly jolly commentary on a large number of contemporary writers."[8] Roger Ebert called Schneider a "considerable critic" in a 2009 blog post on RogerEbert.com while responding to Schneider's positive and negative assessments of his critical style. Ebert wrote the post after receiving an email from a reader who engaged in a disagreement with a friend about Schneider's critical merits.[14]

Schneider's poetry has been praised by Waswo X. Waswo.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Zellar, Brad (November 24, 1999). "Dan Schneider vs. the Rest of the World". City Pages. Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Archived from the original on July 8, 2016. Retrieved September 7, 2006.
  2. ^ "Od infinitum". Emory Libraries. Emory University. Retrieved October 1, 2023.
  3. ^ Hanson, Eric (June 11, 2000). "The Good, the Bad and the Poesy". Star Tribune. Minneapolis–Saint Paul. An outspoken poet who has been banned from some local readings because of his intrusive outbursts, Schneider was the subject of a 1999 City Pages cover story that drew cheers from some locals who have grown tired of the prevailing poetry-as-therapy movement (nothing is good or bad, man, just from the heart or not).
  4. ^ "Johnson, Charles R. (May 28, 2007). "M&C Interviews Charles Johnson". Monsters and Critics (Interview). Interviewed by Dan and Jessica Schneider. Archived from the original on June 2, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  5. ^ a b Bickley, Pamela, ed. (2008). "How to Write About Contemporary Fiction: Using Reviews". Contemporary Fiction: The Novel Since 1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 112-116. ISBN 9780521712491.
  6. ^ a b Ruby, Mary, ed. (2016). "Chris Impey: 1956-". Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields. New Revision Series. Vol. 305. Farmington Hills: Gale. p. 173-178. ISBN 9781410311948.
  7. ^ Logsdon, Loren (2016). "Illinois". In Greasley, Philip A. (ed.). Dictionary of Midwestern Literature, Volume 2: Dimensions of the Midwestern Literary Imagination. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 332. ISBN 9780253021045.
  8. ^ a b Orr, David (October 3, 2004). "Where to Find Digital Lit". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2019.
  9. ^ Reagle, Joseph (2015). Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 192. ISBN 9780262328876.
  10. ^ Alic, Margaret; Jacques, Derek (2017). "James A Emanuel: 1921-2013". Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 140: Profiles from the International Black Community. Farmington Hills: Gale. p. 23-26. ISBN 9781410323392.
  11. ^ Bailey, Ronald (2017). "Introduction to the Special Issues of Fire!!! on Digital Publishing". Fire!!!. 3 (2): 19. doi:10.5323/fire.3.2.0001. JSTOR 10.5323/fire.3.2.0001.
  12. ^ Yardley, William (October 11, 2013). "James A. Emanuel, Poet Who Wrote of Racism, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved October 1, 2023.
  13. ^ Wong, Cyril (July 4, 2003). "The Acid Tongue: Dan Schneider Connects the Dots". Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. 2 (4). Retrieved October 1, 2023.
  14. ^ Ebert, Roger (December 9, 2009). "Good Roger, or Bad Roger?". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved October 1, 2023.
  15. ^ ""I never carry my camera on a holiday: Interview with Waswo X Waswo"". The Pioneer. New Delhi, India. December 10, 2011.
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