“The 'World Wide Web', as people quaintly called the Internet in 1996, was more or less made up of text. There was no YouTube. There was no Facebook. There was, however, Usenet, a loose and difficult-to-navigate assortment of message boards.”

Canadian author, freelance journalist and critic

Michelle Dean is a Canadian author, freelance journalist, and critic. She writes on literature, culture, and ideas, and her work has appeared across a range of publications. Her writing is known for close reading and clear judgment, with a focus on the people and arguments that shape contemporary literary life. She has built a body of work that moves between journalism and criticism.