What pleases you most about the way your essay turned out? Are there any ways in which it fell short of your original goals?

I'm generally pleased with how the essay turned out, as I wanted mostly to capture the magnitude of the betrayal I felt at 12 when this "holy" man whom even my parents revered found nothing sacred in keeping his word. It was in no sense a personal betrayal, because I scarcely knew him on a personal level; rather, it was impersonal and sinister because he was, to my pre-adolescent mind, our family's intermediary with God. I think I caught that. Still, just as a pianist can't play the notes in the cracks, there are subtleties of feeling that I'm not sure I managed to capture. I'm not sure you can ever quite achieve the vision you start with in your mind, just come as close as possible.

How did your essay develop, both in your initial thinking about it and in the revision process? What happened in writing that you didn't expect would happen?

All my adult life, I've been a journal keeper, and among the journals I keep is a Progoff Intensive Journal. Almost 20 years ago, as I was noting in that journal the most significant events of my life, I wrote down, "Being betrayed by the rabbi." That's all there was for many years, as I never did think to write a full account of it. Then a poet friend of mine was giving a writing exercise to my students that took the form, essentially, of, "Write about a time when you lost faith in someone or something." The rabbi's broken promise came immediately to mind. I did the exercise along with the students, and the essay just poured out in draft form in barely an hour. I shaped it into a short story, then recast it into its final form as an essay, which, since it really did happen just this way, is how I'm most comfortable with it. Perhaps the only thing that happened during the writing that came unexpectedly was recalling how hormonal you become suddenly when puberty hits.

If you write in other genres (poetry, fiction, playwriting, literary criticism, etc.) how does your experience writing in creative nonfiction depend upon or depart from your other kinds of writing?

I don't think there is, structurally, a great difference between the personal essay, the story and the poem, in that each form demands you get in and out quickly, implying a full background rather than actually creating one (that's where these forms differ from the novel). You try to capture the essence of your subject quickly and clearly. There is, though, enormous difference between all these forms, including the novel, and those forms which are primarily critical or scholarly. Critical writing is analytical, offering a clear view of a mind at work. Creative writing comes mostly from deeper than cognitive levels and is less about the mind than the total person, and thinking too hard during the actual writing can impede rather than facilitate the process. The analytical thinking comes before and especially after the draft is written. I have a jazz saxophonist friend who insists, "The less I think, the better I play." I think most artists understand what he means, but, unlike him, writers get the chance to revise.

Speculate about creative nonfiction as an emerging genre in American literature. Where do you see it going in the next several years, or even farther down the line?

Creative nonfiction has always been around, even before we used the term. Even as Wordsworth was composing his poems, his sister Dorothy was writing journal entries that beautifully describe his writing process and their life in the Lake District, and some of her entries are better than most of his poems. But since the 1930s with Hemingway's African and bullfighting nonfiction, and especially since the New Journalism of the 1950s and 1960s, we've come to celebrate creative nonfiction as a legitimate art form of equal standing with poetry and fiction. The form has enormous possibilities, as we will never tire of a perceptive mind, keen eye and articulate voice relating real life experience. Who could tire of the reflections of, say, Annie Dillard or Peter Matthiessen? However, while I love well-done memoir, I wonder if there may be too much being written now, reflecting a self-centeredness in our times and a corresponding alienation and isolation from one another.

What are the specific literary techniques you attempt to use as a creative nonfiction writer? For example, do you attempt to write in scenes? Do you employ dialogue? Specificity of detail? How and why?

Scene and dialogue in creative nonfiction are as central as they are in fiction. They are the means by which you show experience rather than simply tell it. I don't believe I think of them much as I write, as they just happen. What I do make a conscious effort to do, though-and this reflects a piece of advice I heard from George Garrett, who's taught so many fine writers-is make sure I continually include details that engage each of the five senses. That does not come naturally to me, so I make an effort, because the more the setting feels real and alive, the more credible will be the action that takes place there.

What advice might you offer young people interested in writing?

I'd offer aspiring young writers two different kinds of advice. First, concerning the craft of writing: Read all the good writing you can get your hands on, savor it, read it aloud, even copy your favorite passages longhand (you'll be surprised what you see about craft at that speed), and then keep writing frequently, daily, if possible. Second, and more important: Get in the habit of saying "yes" to opportunities for new experience, pay attention to the world around you, listen to people-both their words and the feeling behind the words, soak up experience like a sponge; when you pass a tree really see it. Then, even if it turns out your work doesn't get published, you'll have a life.