D’Agata Defends Non-Fiction With History

According to John D’Agata, “Nonfiction is perceived to be the ugly stepsister to fiction and poetry ... there’s a suspicion of nonfiction as a vehicle of data.”

This renowned essayist came to Columbia last Friday to deliver the second lecture in the Creative Writing Lecture Series at the School of the Arts, on “The Origin of Essaying.” Informed by more than a decade spent writing and teaching nonfiction, he has put in a lot of hours at the library assembling a collection that he hopes will change attitudes towards the genre.

“In the present, a lot of the problems stem from problems with terminology,” D’Agata said in an interview after the event. The word “nonfiction” suggests that the genre is “not artful ... Even the term ‘essay’ reminds us of things we had to write in high school or term papers.”

Others clearly share his desire for a redefinition—the room where he delivered his lecture on Friday was packed.

D’Agata, originally a classics scholar, began his talk in 2700 BCE with a series of records from Ancient Mesopotamia. In these early written records, he notices the tools used in the earliest nonfiction essays already developing.

“Writing, I am going to claim, began as nonfiction,” he said, but added that it was the worst kind. He pointed to the less literal alternatives that evolved as the essay’s point of origin.

“I prefer the term ‘essay’,” he said. “I think it implies exploration, an attempt ... Ideas are shaped associatively.”

D’Agata grew up on Cape Cod and Boston’s South End and studied classics in college. He went on to complete Masters of Fine Arts in nonfiction and poetry at the University of Iowa’s prestigious writing program.
At the time, D’Agata found the graduate nonfiction curriculum limited. He began looking for alternative repositories of nonfiction writing: “I realized that all these super-dead white guys I was reading were essayists.”

Once he began teaching, D’Agata felt an especially increased urgency in his project to expand the accepted nonfiction canon. Since completing school eleven years ago, D’Agata has taught at Columbia and Colgate, and he now sits on the English faculty of the University of Iowa.

“I felt compelled to track down where we come from as writers ... to point out to students they share a part of a rich heritage,” he said.
Graywolf Press will release D’Agata’s nonfiction anthology, The Lost Origins of the Essay, in August, as a companion to his previous anthology, The Next American Essay, which was released by Graywolf in 2002. D’Agata’s own book, Halls of Fame, was published by Graywolf in 2003 and received many positive reviews.

“These [anthologies] are the most personal things I’ve ever put together,” D’Agata said. “They’re pure opinion ... You put yourself out there ... there’s something a little risky there and I love that.”

While putting this collection together, D’Agata hasn’t abandoned his own nonfiction writing. His own book-length essay, About a Mountain, will appear in October.