The essay community should have hundreds of anthologies from hundreds of different perspectives that are constantly introducing us to new writers, new work, and new visions for our genre. The whole spirit of these anthologies is that there should never… — John D'Agata Copy Share Image
Inclusiveness isn't what I want to push back against. The obsession with facts is. — John D'Agata Copy Share
Yet there are some critics in the nonfiction world who still look at some of today's stranger interpretations of the essay and say "You… — John D'Agata Copy Share
I think that in a lot of readers' minds the essay is a lot more utilitarian than it is art. — John D'Agata Copy Share
As frustrating as my time in grad school felt, it also helped tremendously because it challenged me to figure out what it was I… — John D'Agata Copy Share
I'm not worried about what part of their life they needed to massage in order to achieve something that I get to experience as… — John D'Agata Copy Share
You create your own audience, and your own community of peers, and in some ways you create your own forebears as well. — John D'Agata Copy Share
Even if it's a definition that feels oppressive to us, that oppression can be inspiring because it helps us push up against something while… — John D'Agata Copy Share
I thought that I wasn't an essayist because I just didn't see myself in a lot of the essays that were popular at the… — John D'Agata Copy Share
You move your life across the country and make a commitment to a place, and to a genre, and then you realize that neither… — John D'Agata Copy Share
Pedagogically, we need definitions and borders. They help us get our heads around what we're talking about. — John D'Agata Copy Share
“Maybe every essay automatically is in some way experimental — less an outline traveling toward a foregone conclusion than an unmapped quest that has… — John D'Agata Copy Share
I wanted to create an environment in which more than just personal essays could be represented, and in which stranger approaches to making essays… — John D'Agata Copy Share
Sometimes what I'm looking for is the thing that will help renew people's interest in a writer that they may have written off as… — John D'Agata Copy Share
