Hal Niedzviecki is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 novelist and cultural critic.

Born into a Jewish family, he was raised in Ottawa

Ottawa

Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

, Ontario and Potomac

Potomac, Maryland

Potomac is a census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, named for the nearby Potomac River. The population was 44,822 at the 2000 census. The Potomac area is known for its very affluent and highly-educated residents. In 2009 CNNMoney.com listed Potomac as the fourth...

, Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, did his undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...

 and his graduate studies at Bard College

Bard College

Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...

. In 1995, he co-founded the magazine Broken Pencil

Broken Pencil

Broken Pencil is a Canadian magazine, which profiles zine culture and independent arts and music. The magazine publishes four times annually and is based in Toronto.The magazine was founded in 1995 by Hal Niedzviecki...

, a guide to underground arts and zine

Zine

A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....

 culture, and was the magazine's editor until 2002. He has also written for Adbusters

AdBusters

The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia...

, Utne Magazine, The Walrus

The Walrus

The Walrus is a Canadian general interest magazine which publishes long form journalism on Canadian and international affairs, along with fiction and poetry by Canadian writers. It launched in September 2003, as an attempt to create a Canadian equivalent to American magazines such as Harper's, The...

, This Magazine

This Magazine

This Magazine is an independent alternative Canadian political magazine. It was launched "by a gang of school activists" in 1966 as This Magazine is About Schools, a journal covering political issues in the education system...

, Geist

Geist (magazine)

Geist is Canada's most widely read literary magazine. Geist is published four times a year in Vancouver since 1990. The magazine takes its name from the German word geist, meaning "mind" or "spirit."...

, Toronto Life

Toronto Life

Toronto Life is a monthly Canadian magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto Life also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including Home Decor, Stylebook, Eating & Drinking, Real Estate and Weddings. Established in 1966,...

, The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

and the National Post

National Post

The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...

.

In 2006, Niedzviecki hosted a summer replacement series, Subcultures, on CBC Radio One

CBC Radio One

CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...

.

Work

• Concrete Forest: The New Fiction of Urban Canada (1998, anthology)
• Smell It (1998, short fiction)
• Lurvy, A Farmer's Almanac (1999, novel)
• We Want Some Too: Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture (2000)
• Ditch (2001, novel)
• The Original Canadian City Dweller's Almanac (2002, with Darren Wershler-Henry
  Darren Wershler-Henry
  Darren Wershler aka Darren Wershler-Henry is a Canadian experimental poet, non-fiction writer and cultural critic.A former grave digger, he was the senior editor of Coach House Books between 1997 and 2002, where the works he edited included several highly acclaimed books of contemporary innovative...
  
  )
• Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity (2004)
• The Program (2005, novel)
• The Big Book of Pop Culture: A How-to Guide for Young Artists (2006)
• The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors (City Lights, 2009) ISBN 978-0872864993.
• Look Down, This Is Where It Must Have Happened (City Lights, 2011) ISBN 9780872865396

External links

• Hal Niedzviecki
• Interview with Hal Niedzviecki, online from CBC Words at Large
• The Peep Diaries book description, reviews and purchasing information
• Hello I'm Special book description, reviews and purchasing information
• Look Down, This Is Where It Must Have Happened book description, reviews and purchasing information