“As a student at the time, I kind of felt like my only options as a nonfiction writer were to either jump on the personal essay bus or linger back at the station, hoping that some other heretofore unknown mode of transportation was going to magically show up to take me where I wanted to go.” KindShowsWantedFeltStudentsStationsTake MeBusNonfictionEssaysTransportationPersonal Essays Author:John D'Agata
“As frustrating as my time in grad school felt, it also helped tremendously because it challenged me to figure out what it was I thought I wanted.” WantedSchoolFeltFiguresMy TimeFrustratingGradGrad School Author:John D'Agata
“Back in the day, a lot of our instructors in nonfiction were actually fiction scholars. So they would bring in stories as models for the essay. And in some ways that's a good idea, because we can all learn from other genres. But I think it also made me realize that I literally didn't have an essay model, and that if I wanted one I would have to find it.” IfsThinkingWayMadeIdeasStoriesWantedRealizingFictionModelsGenreGood IdeasNonfictionScholarEssaysInstructorsBack In The Day Author:John D'Agata
“I wanted to create an environment in which more than just personal essays could be represented, and in which stranger approaches to making essays could be celebrated.” WantedEnvironmentApproachStrangerEssaysPersonal Essays Author:John D'Agata
“The best stuff that Cicero wrote, in the first century in Rome, were the Philippics, a series of speeches that he delivered against Marc Antony, whom he thought was irreparably dismantling the Republic of Rome. Those speeches are powerful because they're not only really pointed but they're thrillingly beautiful - and that's precisely what made them dangerous: the fact that people wanted to read them.” PeopleFirstsMadeFactsWantedBeautifulStuffPowerfulCenturyDangerousSpeechSeriesRepublicRomeAntony Author:John D'Agata
