In college I studied essays with a poet, and so I think my interpretation of the genre was always going to be a little off-kilter.
John D'AgataI think that in a lot of readers' minds the essay is a lot more utilitarian than it is art.
John D'AgataBack 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.
John D'AgataWhen you're a young writer and you look at people praising a big hefty anthology that has uncovered a long lost genre, it can be disorienting to look inside it and think, "But what it's uncovered still isn't me. What does this mean? Do I not belong in this genre, or is there more of the genre yet to find?"
John D'Agata