[1][2] Roth is a graduate of The Dalton School, Columbia University, and began but did not finish a PhD in Comparative Literature from Yale University.
[3][4] In 2009, he was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts,[5] and the Roger Shattuck prize for literary criticism in 2011.
[7] He resigned from his masthead position at n+1 in response to the publication of what he called "an unapologetic, celebratory account of the pro-Palestinian rallies on Oct. 8" following the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
[10][11] His work has appeared in the Dissent,[12] New York Times, Harper's, The London Review of Books, The Times Literary Supplement and the Nation.
[13] His memoir, The Scientists: A Family Romance, about his father's death and "truths and limitations in literature",[14] came out in 2012.