Michiko Kakutani is an American literary critic and former chief book critic for The New York Times. She is known for her incisive and often scathing reviews of both established and emerging authors. Kakutani was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale University in 1976. She began her career at The New York Times in 1979, and was appointed chief book critic in 1983. During her tenure, she wrote thousands of reviews, and was widely respected for her sharp insights and her ability to identify trends in literature. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. In 2017, she retired from The New York Times after 38 years of service. Kakutani is also the author of The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump, a book that examines the rise of post-truth politics in the United States.