Ken Tucker | |
|---|---|
 Tucker in 2008 | |
| Born | Kenneth Tucker |
| Education | B.A., English,New York University |
| Occupation(s) | arts critic, magazine editor and nonfiction book author |
| Years active | since 1974[1] |
| Website | www.kentucker.net |
Kenneth Tucker is an American arts, music and television critic, magazine editor, and nonfiction book author.
Tucker was born inManhattan,New York City,New York, and raised inStamford,Connecticut. He earned a bachelor's degree in English fromNew York University.
While attending NYU, he began writing freelance reviews forThe Village Voice,SoHo Weekly News, andRolling Stone.[2] From 1979 to 1983, Tucker was the rock critic for theLos Angeles Herald-Examiner. From 1983 to 1990, he worked atThe Philadelphia Inquirer, first as the newspaper's rock critic, and then its television critic.
In 1990, he joinedEntertainment Weekly (aTime Inc. publication) as a founding staffer. He was the magazine's television critic,[3] DVD critic and an editor-at-large until 2013,[4] except for one year (2005–06) as film critic atNew York Magazine.
Since 1982, Tucker has been a rock and pop music critic for theNational Public Radio (NPR) talk showFresh Air withTerry Gross.[2][5]
Tucker has appeared many times on television, including multiple appearances onThe Today Show,Good Morning America,The Charlie Rose Show, andThe Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.[6] He appears in the 1984 documentaryThe Gospel According toAl Green.[6] He is interviewed on-camera inCartoon College, a documentary about the history of comics.
Tucker's reviews have provoked some notable responses from his subjects. In August 1980,Billy Joel, enraged by a negative review of his music Tucker had written in theL.A. Herald Examiner, tore up the review on stage during one of his concerts.[7]
Tucker's negative reviews ofSeth MacFarlane’s animated seriesFamily Guy resulted in a number of MacFarlane counter-criticisms, including a scene in whichStewie Griffin breaks the neck of anEntertainment Weekly writer widely assumed to be Tucker.[8]
For his critical writings, Tucker was a finalist for thePulitzer Prize in Criticism in 1984,[9] the first rock critic to become a Pulitzer finalist.[10] He won aNational Magazine Award in 1995[11] and has twice won aDeems Taylor Award by theAmerican Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).[12][13]
Tucker has written frequently aboutpoetry andcomic books, most notably forThe New York Times Book Review[14][15] andThe Best American Poetry blog.[16] His 1985New York Times review[17] of the serialized portions ofArt Spiegelman’s then-work-in-progressMaus is considered a factor in the mainstream acceptance of graphic novels and the publication ofMaus byPantheon Books.[18]
He has contributed essays to the following anthologies:
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