Michael Dirda is a weekly book columnist for The Washington Postas well as a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement, and many other periodicals. He is the author of a memoir, five collections of essays, and a prize-winning book about Arthur Conan Doyle. Dirda graduated with Highest Honors in English from Oberlin College and received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Cornell University. He was awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for criticism.