Douglas Coupland is a Canadian writer often credited with coining the term Generation X. Whether this is true or not, his first novel, published in 1991, was called Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. The novel was highly praised, and the name Douglas Coupland became synonymous with Generation X culture.
Douglas Coupland was born on 30 December 1961 in Baden, West Germany. His family moved to Vancouver in Canada, and Coupland studied art and sculpture. He found a small degree of success as a sculptor and had his own art exhibited at a Vancouver art gallery. Coupland's literary career began with a comic strip in 1988 for a now defunct magazine called Vista.
Shortly after the comic strip appeared, Coupland was contacted by New York publisher St. Martin's Press. He agreed to write a guide on Generation X. Douglas Coupland then moved to Palm Springs, California, where he wrote his first novel. With Generation X, Douglas Coupland perfectly captured the spirit of the time – the alienation, nihilism, and amorality of a group of people who could do anything they want with their lives but find nothing in particular that they want to do. At least that was how some literary critics defined his writing.
Douglas Coupland has a knack for capturing perfect examples of pop culture and incorporating them into his work. He weaves his knowledge of art and design and modern technological life into the pages of his books. Jpod, published in 2006, included pages of sequential numbers as puzzles for no other reason than to draw the reader into the lives of the characters. Although seemingly meaningless, they highlight the ambivalent desperation of office tech workers who use any means available to fill their time.
Coupland's themes have changed over the years. He does not stick to a single winning formula, but has expanded his themes considerably. Novels such as Hey, Nostradamus, published in 2003, left a lot of the humor of his earlier work behind. The theme of religious beliefs passed from one generation to the next, combined with a school shooting, make the novel a multilayered work. Hey, Nostradamus won the fiction award at the Canadian Author's Association.
The writing of Douglas Coupland is often concerned with the modern world and how people's beliefs and attitudes are shaped by it. He has seemingly moved away from being the spokesperson of Generation X to explore darker themes. He uses incidents in his novels that have been termed low probability, but through such incidents, he is able to explore creatively on deeper levels. Douglas Coupland has written 11 fiction books, including Girlfriend in a Coma (1998), Miss Wyoming (2000) and All Families are Psychotic: A Novel (2001). He has also written seven books of non fiction.