What pleases me is that the essay seems to have a visceral appeal. Anti-Semitism in American culture is not a popular subject. Most people want to say: "Aren't we finished with that?" We're not. As far as goals are concerned, mine are always the same. I want us to think clearly and to feel sensitively. In order to do that, my work has to reach a reader on both an intellectual and an emotional level. I want us to live better lives. If I achieve these goals, I don't fall short. If I don't achieve these goals, I fall short.

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

I was nearing the end of a month-long residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. During that month, I was immersed in the rare isolation of an artist's colony that keeps the outside world purposely at a distance. There was one phone for the twenty or so artists, composers, and writers living and working on a hill top in rural Virginia, and that phone was in the residence hall, a long walk from the studios where we worked. The antique dealer was the first person from the outside world (other than family), I'd talked to in a month. His blow was visceral. And shocking. When I returned to the colony, late in the day, I talked of nothing else, and the next morning when I woke, I lay in that state of near wakefulness, my barely conscious mind writing away. I dressed quickly and walked to my studio in the dark. There I transcribed what my mind had written into my computer. I knew I had something, but it wasn't complete. The surprise was the story about the cows which wasn't in the original draft. I included it later. The subject matter, though, tapped into a lifetime of thought and concern. Anti- Semitism is a constant theme in my work.

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

Mostly, I write fiction. Fiction speaks from inside invented characters who are telling their story or stories. Nonfiction speaks from an "I" or an "eye" which is not only authorial, but on a journey of discovery. Yet, I approach the writing of both fiction and nonfiction in the same way. Writing this piece, I asked myself questions: Why did this incident upset me so? Is it me? How would others react? And more concretely: What color was the sky? Were there clouds? What about the sun? How did it look on the road? In both fiction and nonfiction, I go back to my journals and skim, looking for entries that tap into the same subject matter. I read and I think. Often, I'll read other writers. More thinking. If I need to, I'll do research.

Give some of your reflections 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 seems to be filling a universal craving for what is theoretically true. The genre is not new. It used to live inside of novels when the author's hand was visible. Today, we judge fiction by the invisibility of an author's hand. Yet, something inside of us craves a reality closer to home. We want our writers to show us how to meet experience head on. We want the stories we used to hear sitting around kitchen tables or in living rooms on overstuffed couches. Now, we're outside jogging or walking. We're playing volleyball, softball, baseball, skating on blades. We're listening to music, watching T.V. We're at the movies or on the internet. We're moving, we're plugged in. Still, we want to hear the human voice. We long for narrative, and that's where creative nonfiction is going, into story. Yet, the lines blur, one genre moves over into the other, and I worry. Does this mean we now see fiction as something unanchored, unmoored as opposed to creative nonfiction which is supposedly anchored? Does our move toward this genre diminish the power of myth? And what of Welty's line that I love to quote. "Fiction is the lie that tells the truth." We must remember that the "I" (eye) of creative nonfiction is a persona. The "I" of one essay is not the "I" of another. Creative nonfiction employs the same literary techniques that fiction does, character, plot, theme, setting, mood. All of life is creation, is story. I suppose what I'm worried about is truth. It's wonderful to seek truth, but when we think we've found it in a new genre, I worry. Truth lives in questions, rarely in answers.

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? Do you employ specific detail? How and why?

As a fiction writer, it's easy for me to move into creative nonfiction. I tell a story using character, scene, dialogue, and setting. I create mood. I use all of these literary techniques when I write both fiction and nonfiction.

What advice might you offer to young people interested in writing?

Just do it. Writer's write. But don't count on making your living as a writer. If you truly want to write, you'll have to find work compatible with the writing life. That may mean a low-paying job like adjunct teaching which I don't recommend. Or a high-paying computer job. Much better. Either way you'll have a tough time. You'll need tenacity. There isn't much support for the arts out there. Writers need not only time to write, but also space around their writing time. We need to think. We need to read. We need to dream. So my final piece of advice is to find what works for you and stick to it. Remember, writer's write.