David Kipen
Literary Critic and Founder, Libros Schmibros Bookstore and Lending Library
"The quality I prize most in others is self-doubt. Me, I have enough self-doubt to go around. Unwittingly, I think I created a nonprofit lending library as a cure for my doubts, a public way to share the joy of good literature—one thing I feel pretty sure of. Of course, it didn’t work. I still second-guess my every move. But putting books into people’s hands remains the least dubious, most helpful thing I can think of to do. Maybe I’m wrong. But I doubt it."
Biography
David Kipen is the former literature director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Kipen opened the Boyle Heights bookstore and lending library Libros Schmibros in 2010. The former book editor/critic of the San Francisco Chronicle and contributor to multiple volumes of California cultural history, Kipen holds a degree in literature from Yale University. He teaches in the UCLA writing program.