Dave Eggers grew up close to Chicago and attended the University of Illinois. He is the author of the memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000), the novel You Shall Know Our Velocity! (2002), the story collection How We Are Hungry (2004), and the novel What Is the What (2006). In 1998, he founded McSweeney's, an independent book-publishing house in San Francisco that puts out the McSweeney's quarterly literary journal; the monthly magazine The Believer; daily humour website www.mcsweeneys.net; and Wholphin, a DVD quarterly of short films. In 2002, Eggers opened 826 Valencia, a writing lab for young people located in the Mission District of San Francisco, where he teaches writing to high-school students and runs a summer publishing camp; there are now branches of 826 in Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and Ann Arbor, and in 2007 a seventh centre will open in Boston. With the help of his workshop students,Eggers edits a collection of fiction, essays, and journalism called The Best American Nonrequired Reading.
He is also the co-editor of the Voice of Witness series of oral histories. His fiction has appeared in Zoetrope, Punk Planet, and The New Yorker. He has recently written introductions to new editions of books by Edward Wallant, John Cheever, and Mark Twain. He writes regularly about art and music for magazines, including Frieze, Blind Spot, Parkett, and Spin, and his design work has been featured in many periodicals, including Print and Eye, and annuals, including Area: 100 Graphic Designers (Phaidon, 2003) and Reinventing the Wheel (2002, Princeton Architectural Press). He has designed most of the books and quarterlies published by McSweeney's, and created the templates for The Believer and Wholphin. In 2003, his designs for McSweeney's were featured in the National Design Triennial at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and in the California Design Biennial.
