Anne Fadiman and Her Students: Writing About Oneself

One of America’s most beloved nonfiction writers (and a legendary writing teacher at Yale) joins a group of her former students, all alums of her popular course "Writing About Oneself" — Nadja Spiegelman, David Litt, Mary-Alice Daniel, and Nicolas Niarchos — for a conversation on first-person writing between a master of the personal essay and several fine memoirists.

Anne Fadiman makes any subject that she alights upon come alive. Ranging in subject matter from her deceased frog to archaic printer technology to the fraught relationship between Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his son Hartley, her new collection unlocks entire worlds through sly observation, brilliant wit, and a razor-sharp attention to craft that have made her one of the most sought-after writing teachers of her generation.

“Until last summer, we had a dead frog in our freezer… There are two kinds of pets — the ones you choose and the ones that happen to you,” writes Fadiman in the indelible title essay. What makes Fadiman’s writing so direct, lyrical, and mordantly funny? Join us for a special conversation with a group of her former students — themselves distinguished writers of many stripes — a celebration of her new collection and a lively inquiry into the art of the essay.

“I’d be hard-pressed to name another writer whose work is so humane, penetrating, and gorgeously wrought. There are lines in this book I’d consider having tattooed onto my chest.” — Michael Cunningham