A native of South Dakota, Joseph Bottum is one of the nation’s most widely published writers—author of over a thousand essays, reviews, poems, and short stories from the Atlantic to the Washington Post. With a Ph.D. in medieval philosophy, he has written four books of poetry. “A poet and critic and essayist with a sideline in history and philosophy,” according to the New York Times, Bottum has twice been the #1 nationally bestselling ebook author. His print books including the sociological study An Anxious Age, and The World Is Awake, for which he shared the Christopher Award for the year’s best children’s book. National Review has called him the “poetic voice” of American commentary who “shaped the minds of a generation,” adding that “his name would be mandatory on any objective short list of America’s public intellectuals.”