John D'Agata

John D’Agata teaches creative nonfiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is the author of Halls of Fame, the most exciting book of essays since A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. About a Mountain follows what happens when D’Agata moves his mother to Las Vegas. Says the Los Angeles ... (more)Times, “This is what, at its best, contemporary narrative nonfiction aspires to.”

"John D'Agata is the author of Halls of Fame, a collection of essays, and the editor of The Next American Essay, an anthology of innovative modern American nonfiction. His forthcoming books include The Lifespan of a Fact, a meditation on the Yucca Mountain Project in southwest Nevada, and two historical ... (more)companions to The Next American Essay. He has taught at Colgate University, Columbia, and California Institute of the Arts and is the editor of lyric essays for Seneca Review. NEW AMERICAN WRITING This series of contemporary fiction and poetry readings is organized by Benjamin Weissman, author of two books of short fiction, most recently Headless, and professor of creative writing at Art Center College of Design and Otis College of Art and Design."

University of Iowa professor of Creative writing, John D’Agata, reads from his book About a Mountain. While moving his mother to Las Vegas, D’Agata began to follow the story of the government’s plan to store high-level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Exploring intertwined questions of time, ... (more)communication, and annihilation, D’Agata’s highly-anticipated second book is an unflinching, terrifying, and beautifully written meditation on nothing less than the future of human life.