ON THE ESSAY AS LEGIT LIT GENRE:
"This is, to my mind, a respectful description and an enthusiastic endorsement of the essay (at its best) as a legitimate form of literature—something all writers of creative/literary nonfiction aspire to. And I think it’s a truthful claim to say that, today, many essays and writers have achieved that status. Still, I want to remind readers that in the early 1990s, the genre was considered to be a literary stepchild of sorts."
ON GOOD STARTS:
"We all know what the landscape of literary/creative nonfiction looks like today: the wide-ranging diversity of works and writers, the growing number of blogs, online and print journals, writing contests, MFA programs, and small, independent presses that publish everything from experimental to traditional works of literary nonfiction. And some of those “notable” writers who, back then, I’d never heard of, are now among my closest teaching and writing colleagues. Plus, some are considered to be amongst our very best writers of literary/creative nonfiction."