Davis Schneiderman

Biography

Schneiderman earned a B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University (1996), an M.A. (1998) and Ph.D. (2001) from Binghamton University. In 2001 he became a professor of English at Lake Forest College, and is Associate Dean of the Faculty. He is Director of the Center for Chicago Programs, Lake Forest College In The Loop (a residential program in Chicago) and Forest College Press / &NOW Books. He currently serves as a national board member of the &NOW organization that has partnered with the University of Paris, UCSD, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and CalArts, among others. Schneiderman as edited the anthology, The &NOW AWARDS: The Best Innovative Writing.

Schneiderman is former chair of English Department, American Studies Program, and is currently Director of Digital Chicago, a four-year grant funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Schneiderman also directed an early digital humanities project, the NEH-funded Virtual Burnham Initiative, a project to create 3-D models of the 1909 Plan of Chicago.

A popular community lecturer, Schneiderman live interviews the authors of the Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale one-book program in Lake Forest, IL; including Lauren Groff in 2016. The Highland Park Public Library in Highland Park, IL, has recently named the Schneiderman-led discussion series "Discussions with Davis."

He lives in Highland Park, IL with the actor Kelly Haramis, and their two daughters.

Works

Schneiderman is the author or editor of 10 books. As a creative writer, his recent novels include the DEAD/BOOKS trilogy, including the blank novel BLANK, the plagiarized novel [SIC](a collaboration with Andi Olsen, with an introduction by Oulipo member Daniel Levin-Becker) and the ink-smeared novel INK. (collaboration with Tim Guthrie); as well as the sci-fi dystopia novel Drain (Northwestern). Schneiderman edited wrote the introduction for the last novel from WWII survivor Raymond Federman. Schneiderman’s work has appeared in numerous publications including Fiction International, Harpers.org, The Chicago Tribune, The Iowa Review, TriQuarterly, and Exquisite Corpse; he blogs for The Huffington Post.

Writing about his novel Drain, reviewer Renée E. D'Aoust praised the way Schneiderman "conjures images within images" and called the book "creepy and bloody effective". Writing about Schneiderman's work, critic Edward S. Robinson notes that Schneiderman's "novels are imbued with theoretical complexity and a keen self-awareness, but without being smugly in your face with self-reflexivity....[and] his writing indisputably engages with contemporary discourse and is designed to provoke thought and debate."

Schneiderman's work has garnered notice for its unusual packaging, as well as for its writing. He bound his first book Multifesto in sandpaper to purposely damage the books next to it. Another of his books was encased in plaster. BLANK had collage musical tracks provided by Paul Miller, aka dj spooky. The remix edition of his debut novel Multifesto, originally 20086 and republished in 2013, contained remixes from the author Roxane Gay, Matt Bell, and Kathleen Rooney, among others.

As a scholar, Schneiderman is a recognized expert on the work of William S. Burroughs, and his co-edited collection Retaking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization was republished on its tenth anniversary at Realitystudio.com, the leading Burroughs website. Schneiderman has also written extensively about innovative literature, the Surrealist Exquisite Corpse, and copyright and collage and remix culture.

As a journalist and essayist, Schneiderman has interviewed John Waters, Temple Grandin, Edward Snowden’s ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner, Sherry Turkle, David Shields, and Aleksandar Hemon, among others.

As Director of Lake Forest College Press, Schneiderman has published books on transportation and architectural issues including Beyond Burnham: An Illustrated History of Planning for the Chicago Region and Terminal Town: An Illustrated Guide to Chicago's Airports, Bus Depots, Train Stations, and Steamship Landings, 1939 - Present. Schneiderman and the author of these works, Joseph P. Schwieterman of DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development, collaborated through the Digital Chicago grant on Windy City in Motion, an exhibit at Chicago's Union Station.

Digital Humanities and non-paper works

Schneiderman has directed several digital humanities projects. These include the six-campus Exquisite Corpse project (2002-2005), funded by the Midwest Instructional Technology Center among Lake Forest College, Kenyon College, DePauw University, Monmouth College, Oberlin College, and Colorado College; the Virtual Burnham Initiative (2007-2010) funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities Office of Digital Humanities; and two grants from funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This first was a planning grant among Lake Forest College, Knox College, and Beloit College for a collaboration among English Departments, and the four-year $800,000 Digital Chicago: Unearthing History and Culture project. Digital Chicago involves "students and faculty in exploring specific at-risk or forgotten sites in Chicago’s history, through urban archeological digs, innovative digital humanities projects, and complementary coursework in a wide array of disciplines, including English, History, Art, Music, and others."

As a multimedia artist, Schneiderman creates audio, video and performance works as part of The Muttering Sickness collective, and recent works include "Modern Business Machines" a collaboration with actor and director Regina Taylor and Chicago's Goodman Theater; performances as the 2014 and 2016 Chicago Humanities Festival; the latter debuting a drone video connected to the Art Institute of Chicago's exhibit on Hungarian artist Lazlo Moholy-Nagy; and an album, The Last Days of Radio, released on poet Ann Waldman's record label.

Schneiderman is also featured prominently as part of Tim Guthrie's award-winning exhibit The Museum of Alternative History.