Who

The pint-sized wunderkind is the author of the 2005 novel Indecision and the co-editor of n+1.

Backstory

Armed with a Harvard degree and an MFA from Columbia, Colorado native Kunkel landed on the literary scene as the co-editor (along with Keith Gessen, Mark Greif and Marco Roth) of n+1—a journal aimed, humbly, at "the revitalization of civilization." It was his 2005 novel, Indecision, though, that had critics clambering over one another to declare him the latest Voice of a Generation. The story of an aimless 28-year-old who takes a new drug for indecisiveness and discovers the meaning of life, the book was praised by such wide-ranging authorities as Jay McInerney and Holden Caulfield (as conjured by the Times' literary gatekeeper Michiko Kakutani). The book is currently being adapted by Andrew Bujalski (Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Appreciation) into a Scott Rudin-produced movie.

Of note

Since its launch in 2004, n+1 has been a lightning rod for criticism. The editors have made no secret of their ambition to become "the New New York Intellectuals," nor of their disdain for n+1's rival, the Dave Eggers-created, Heidi Julavits-edited anti-snark organ The Believer, and the n+1 editors' all-white, all-male demographics and elite educational pedigrees (three are Harvard alums, the fourth came from the comparative backwaters of Columbia and Yale) have attracted derision. But the magazine has succeeded in making a big splash, grabbing a glowing Tony Scott profile in the Sunday Times Magazine in 2005 and receiving further buzz that same year with the release of Indecision. Carried at indie bookstores and big chains in urban areas, the twice-yearly n+1 continues to alternately enthrall and disgust literary types with articles such as an analysis of the semiotics of the Payless Shoes logo.

Soundbite

Kunkel, asked about his advice to women who encounter clones of his commitment-phobic Indecision protagonist on the dating scene, offered these words of wisdom: "As a whole, you should go on some sort of a sexual strike against just such men… It's like with the labor movement: an individual worker striking won't do it. There needs to be a general strike." Duly noted.

Personal

Kunkel lives near Union Square. His parents, David and Gail Kunkel, purchased an apartment for him when he moved to New York to attend grad school.

True story

When debut novelist Katherine Taylor, in a New York Observer interview, dismissed Indecision as "ridiculously simple," insisting "had it been a girl who'd written it, it would have had the pinkest cover in the world," she hit a nerve. Kunkel wrote a letter to the paper, wondering "why, if Ms. Taylor feels like that, she allowed her editor to send me the galleys of her novel, asking for a blurb. I didn't provide one—though I read enough of Ms. Taylor's book to understand her anxiety about being taken seriously."