[3] Kirk is a National Magazine Award finalist for his story Burning Man,[4] received the 2005 Pew Fellowship in the Arts[5] and also is a MacDowell Fellow.
The Chicago Reader, for which he wrote a few cover stories, was the place where Kirk developed his interest in long-form journalism.
[9] The San Francisco Chronicle calling it “an epic display of one man’s life”[10] and NPR's All Things Considered deeming it “a thrill ride”.
[12] The Whiting Foundation calls Avoid the Day “a thrilling, eccentric journey through time and space… a courageous experiment in hypersubjectivity” that “pushes the boundaries of what nonfiction can do”.
Uproxx says it is “the ultimate film nerd joke”,[16] and Bloody Disgusting deems it “a bizarre cinematic experiment”,[17] while the Chicago Reader says the commentary is outshined by the actual movie[18] Harper's Magazine