After Montaigne by David Lazar

After Montaigne by David Lazar

Writers of the modern essay can trace their chosen genre all the way back to Michel de Montaigne (1533 92). But save for the recent notable best seller How to Live: A Life of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell, Montaigne is largely ignored. After Montaigne a collection of twenty-four new personal essays intended as tribute aims to correct this collective lapse of memory and introduce modern readers and writers to their stylistic forebear.

Though it s been over four hundred years since he began writing his essays, Montaigne s writing is still fresh, and his use of the form as a means of self-exploration in the world around him reads as innovative even by modern standards. He is, simply put, the writer to whom all essayists are indebted. Each contributor has chosen one of Montaigne s 107 essays and has written his/her own essay of the same title and on the same theme, using a quote from Montaigne s essay as an epigraph. The overall effect is akin to a covers album, with each writer offering his or her own interpretation and stylistic verve to Montaigne s themes in ways that both reinforce and challenge the French writer s prose, ideas, and forms. Featuring a who s who of contemporary essayists, After Montaigne offers a startling engagement with Montaigne and the essay form while also pointing the way to the genre s potential new directions.

Michael Powell: Interviews and Discussions with M. Powell was edited by David Lazar, an associate professor of English at Ohio University, senior editor of Hotel Amerika, and editor/publisher of CreativeNonfiction.com. University Press of Mississippi published both books by F.K. Fisher. He's also the author of The Body of Brooklyn, and his writing has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, Aperture, Southwest Review, and a variety of other publications.