Michael Dirda (born 1948) is an American book critic who worked at The Washington Post from 1978 to 2026. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.
Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree in 1970, Dirda earned an M.A. in 1974 and a Ph.D. in 1977 from Cornell University in comparative literature. In 1978 Dirda started writing for the "Book World" section of The Washington Post; in 1993 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his criticism. He was a weekly book columnist for the Post.
In 2002, Dirda was invested as a member of The Baker Street Irregulars.
In 2026, Dirda was laid off by The Washington Post when it reduced its staff by one-third and eliminated the newspaper's books and sports sections.
Two collections of Dirda's literary journalism have been published:
He has also written:
On Conan Doyle was awarded the 2012 Edgar Award in the Best Critical/Biographical category. (Reviewer Darrell Schweitzer lauds the book in The New York Review of Science Fiction.)
Dirda lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Marian Peck Dirda, a prints and drawings conservator at the National Gallery of Art. They have three sons: Christopher (b. 1984), Michael (b. 1987), and Nathaniel (b. 1990).