Patrick Madden, "Disparates: Essays" (U of Nebraska Press, 2020)

New Books in Literature · Mar 12, 2021 · 1h

Today I interview Patrick Madden, an essayist. Now, for most of us, an essay—that thing we were assigned to write in high school or maybe that thing we stayed up all night writing in college—doesn't immediately evoke feelings of joy and excitement or associations of pleasure and profundity. No, an essay isn't something we usually chose to do. And we can take that view of the essay even further. I'm guessing most of us didn't grow up hoping to be an essayist. In fact, we might be surprised to recall that such an identity actually exists. When, after all, is the last time you met an essayist…