Director of Media Relations
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AMHERST, Mass.—John D’Agata, described by Annie Dillard as “a young writer of rare intelligence and artistry,” will read from his book, Halls of Fame, at 8 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 18, in Porter Lounge in Converse Hall at Amherst College. The event, sponsored by the Amherst College Creative Writing Center, is free and open to the public.
Halls of Fame was published by Graywolf Press in January of 2001, and has enjoyed critical acclaim for its distinctive blurring of the boundaries between prose and poetry. Publishers Weekly describes it as “an inviting, elliptical puzzle of American life. [D’Agata] examines disparate American subjects that include the revered (the Hoover Dam), the unknown (outsider artist Henry Darger) and the merely spectacular (the beam of light at Las Vegas’s Luxor hotel).” Excerpts from the book can be found at the Graywolf Press website.
D’Agata, a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, was called “an alchemist who changes trash into purest gold” by Harper’s. He holds MFA degrees in both nonfiction and poetry and is currently the editor of lyric essays for Seneca Review.
The Amherst College Creative Writing Center puts on a yearly reading series featuring both emerging and established authors. Please, visit the Center's Website.
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