Rebecca McClanahan: “I love nonfiction best because I love the world.”
Me, too. The personal essay allows me to not only let my mind wander and dart where it will, but encourages those wanderings and dartings. They are the very things that make a piece unique — only I can write this because only I had this bizarre series of free associations from a particular observation or experience.
Writing gives me the chance (excuse?) to investigate all the questions I can find, in a way I may not do otherwise. Another paraphrased Rebecca-ism: if your writing doesn’t change you, it’s just a hobby.
On Elk Meadow Road 