Jake ClaysonReadymades and Relativity // Interview Transcript (Excerpt)Jacob: You once claimed that an essay is anything an essayist creates. This reminds me of the Dada art movement… I’m trying to remember…Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonAll Dressed Up (Nowhere Going Everywhere) // Takes Four and FiveSo far, I’ve both agreed and disagreed with D’Agata’s habit of calling whatever he likes an essay; I’ve defined the essay by its raw…Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonContractual Uncertainty // Interview Transcript (Excerpt)Jacob: So what’s your take on truth? Is an essayist required to be truthful?Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonKill the Messenger (Kiss the Essayist) // Take ThreeAt any rate, I prefer to define (and pursue) the essay as a mode — a way of traveling creatively or critically — rather than as a form…Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonThe Essay as Outtake // Alternate Take & Studio ChatterThe Beatles Anthology double disk albums were released just as I began listening beyond my parents’ collection at age twelve. I checked…Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonD’Agata’s Ratatouille // Alternate TakeAccording to American poet Joanna Klink, John D’Agata calls anything he likes an essay: poems, sunsets, meals, whatever. This may be…Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonOf a Thesis // Interview Transcript (Excerpt)Jake: In the critical introduction I’m working on for my thesis, I quote Phillip Lopate early on: “in its preference for a conversational…Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonThe Essayist as Outlaw // Take OneLong before I discovered the essay, rough-cut gems fascinated me. I suspect this draw began in utero, my mind and body awash in the…Oct 12, 2018Oct 12, 2018
Jake ClaysonAsh Wednesday, Salt Lake CityNote: the following is an essay from my MFA thesis and was originally published in the Fall 2014 print issue of Inscape, a literary…Jan 2, 2017Jan 2, 2017