Inclusiveness isn't what I want to push back against. The obsession with facts is.

I like Plutarch because I've read him forever, and I know that he's incredibly funky, even though his mainstream image is as Mr. Unfunky.

I felt a little lost as a student. At Iowa, I felt as if I had gotten into this program that was going to save me, and so I moved myself across the country for grad school and yet still didn't have a home. It was upsetting. And I know that's a common feeling.

Sometimes the essay is where we end up when everything that we know must change.

The intimate and meditative form that Plutarch became known for was completely new in his day.

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.

If Plutarch is the essayist I want to believe he is, he would want us all to sit in his chair.