John D’Agata with Ben Marcus, 16 February 2011 – Audio

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on February 16, 2011.

John D’Agata published his first book, Halls of Fame, a collection of lyric essays, in 2001 and Annie Dillard called it “A daring, utterly original book by a young writer of rare intelligence and artistry . . .With wit and finesse, and writing that’s as much poetry as it is prose, D’Agata is redefining the modern American essay.” He has since edited two essay collections, The Next American Essay (2002) and The Lost Origins of the Essay (2009) and his creative nonfiction book, About a Mountain, was published in 2010. His most recent book is The Lifespan of a Fact, published in 2012, and is a collaboration with Jim Fingal, the fact-checker, who worked on a D’Agata essay originally slated to publish in 2003. D’Agata holds MFAs in both nonfiction and poetry and teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where he lives.