Chuck Klosterman delivers UND Spring Commencement Speech

The University of North Dakota celebrated its graduating students at its Spring Commencement ceremony on May 11, 2024. More than 600 graduates and 1,100 undergraduates are eligible to participate in this spring’s Commencement ceremonies.
Bestselling author Chuck Klosterman gave the main address for both the graduate degree ceremony at 9 a.m. and the undergraduate degrees ceremony at 2 p.m. at the Alerus Center, just south of the UND campus. UND President Andrew Armacost will preside.
Klosterman is a journalist, bestselling author and 1994 graduate of the University of North Dakota.
Growing up in Wyndmere, N.D., Klosterman majored in journalism with a minor in English at UND while writing for the student newspaper, The Dakota Student. He also wrote as an intern for the Grand Forks Herald while enrolled.
He went on to work as an entertainment writer for The Forum in Fargo, then later as a reporter and critic for the Akron Beacon Journal. It was during this time that Klosterman wrote “Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota,” which was published in 2001 to critical acclaim.
Klosterman’s success led him to New York City, where he worked as a senior writer and columnist for Spin magazine. He has since had a successful career as a journalist and author writing for publications such as GQ, Esquire, The New York Times, The Guardian, Billboard, The Washington Post and ESPN. Klosterman also served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine for three years.
Klosterman cites his upbringing in North Dakota and experiences at UND as influential in his development as a writer and critic. His 2008 novel, “Downtown Owl,” is about the experience of growing up in rural North Dakota in the 1980s.
His works of nonfiction include “Fargo Rock City,” “Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs,” “Killing Yourself to Live,” “Chuck Klosterman IV,” “Eating the Dinosaur,” “I Wear the Black Hat,” “But What If We’re Wrong? Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past,” “Chuck Klosterman X” and “The Nineties.”
His novels are “Downtown Owl” and “The Visible Man.” He also wrote a collection of short stories published in 2019, titled “Raised in Captivity.”
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[@jasond2138]

Love hearing Chuck talk regardless of the venue.

[@jacksons1600]

Chuck you’re awesome

[@connorbuestad3786]

Love Chuck. Great speech.

[@danielwohl1675]

Yes, Chuck Klosterman is contractually required, when he speaks in public, to make a reference to a basketball player and to a heavy metal musician.