Michael Erard is a writer and linguist. He holds graduate degrees in linguistics and English from the University of Texas at Austin, which accepted his argument in 2000 that because he was born in Texas but taken away against his will, he should be granted in-state tuition for his final semester. He is the author of three books: Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean (2007); Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners (2012); and Bye Bye I Love You: The Story of Our First and Last Words (2025). The second of these was partly written on a Dobie Paisano fellowship in 2008. His journalism and essays have appeared in the Texas Observer, Texas Monthly, The New York Times, Science, The Atlantic, European Review of Books, and the hip 1990s Austin broadsheet 15 Minutes. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Max Planck Society, the US National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Poynter Institute. He now lives in the Netherlands with his family.
2025 Festival Session