John D’Agata, author of The Lost Origins of the Essay, came to be a writer through what seems an unusual route: studying Latin. He began with a tutor as a child and continued with the subject all through school. “It felt like a private language, a private world that was mine,” he said. He majored in it in college until realizing what he really liked about Latin wasn’t quite the language, but the texts. “The huge majority of prose Latin text is essay,” he explained. Now he teaches the subject at the University of Iowa, “in a graduate program dedicated to what the university calls ‘nonfiction.’” Below, he discusses with Zócalo why he’d rather not use the term nonfiction, or even creative nonfiction, how the essay got lost, and what exactly it is.
, explores the legacy of three Kennedy brothers in his latest book, 
. Below, an excerpt about the youngest brother, Ted Kennedy, who died late Tuesday night.
, tells the story of a girl coming of age in the Middle East and in middle America — Texas, to be precise. Jarrar chatted with Zócalo about her inspiration, how closely her character’s story hews to her own, and the work of Arab American writers.
