Writer John D’Agata will kick off the 2011-12 Visiting Writers Series on September 29 at 7:30 p.m. in Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event, sponsored by the College’s Creative Writing Program, is free and open to the public.
An experimental essayist, John D'Agata is known for his innovative use of narrative and for writing that hovers on the brink: between poetry and prose. In his most recent book, About a Mountain (WW. Norton 2010), he tells the story of moving to Las Vegas and discovering the Federal Government’s plan to store nuclear waste at a place called Yucca Mountain.
Charles Bock, a New York Times book critic, calls About a Mountain “a slim but powerful new book.” Publishers Weekly writes, “A sublime reading experience, aesthetically rewarding and marked by moral courage and humility.” His resulting narrative, which critics have called “strikingly innovative and ambitious,” combines lists, modernist collages and lucid prose in a strikingly distinct style. It also explores themes of language, impending catastrophe and communication, “but like most great books, adds up to something much larger.”
D’Agata has also edited the renowned anthologies The Next American Essay and the Lost Origins of the Essay. He is also the author of the highly acclaimed volume of essays, Halls of Fame, which trace his travels, linguistic and literal, to visit America’s marvels and museums, from the Hoover Dam to the American Hall of Famous Ventriloquists.
He teaches creative writing at the University of Iowa.
The 2011-12 Visiting Writers Series will also include the following readings and performances during the fall semester:
- Thursday, Nov. 3 – Anthony Doerr, author of short stories, a novel, a memoir and essays on science
- Thursday, Nov. 17 – Rosanna Warren, poet and translator
- Thursday, Dec. 8 – Steve Almond, author of both fiction and creative nonfiction, and Betsey Lerner, a poet, nonfiction writer, editor, and literary agent, in a panel on “A Life in Letters,” moderated by Leah Hager Cohen, the Jenks Chair of Contemporary American Letters at Holy Cross
