11 Facts About David Shields

The film adaptation of I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel, which Shields co-wrote and co-stars in, was released in 2017.

David Shields wrote, produced, and directed Lynch: A History, a 2019 documentary about Marshawn Lynch's use of silence, echo, and mimicry as key tools of resistance.

David Shields's work has been translated into two dozen languages.

David Shields was born in Los Angeles in 1956 to a lower-middle-class Jewish family.

David Shields has an older sister, a half-brother, and a half-sister.

David Shields's mother, the West Coast correspondent for the Nation for many years, was a political activist; his father worked as a speechwriter for progressive politicians.

In 1962, the family moved to San Francisco, where David Shields's parents were deeply involved in the local anti-war and civil rights community, frequently opening up their home to those in need of short- or long-term shelter.

In 1996, David Shields became a faculty member in the Warren Wilson College low-residency MFA Program for Writers, a position he still holds.

In 2001, David Shields became a visiting instructor at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and has taught there ever since.

In 2011, Norton published The Inevitable: Contemporary Writers Confront Death, an anthology David Shields co-edited with Brad Morrow.

The film, which David Shields wrote, produced, and directed, was named one of the five best films at the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam and has won numerous awards, including the Golden SunBreak Award for Best Documentary and the End of Cinema Award for Best Nonfiction Film.