As the college essay program manager for Write the World, a nonprofit writing organization for teens, I oversee a group of advisers who guide students through the essay writing process. I have seen ...

“Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name should be something like: an effort, an attempt, a trial,” Dillon (The Great Explosion) aptly observes at the outset of this self-reflexive ...

Zadie Smith may be one of those writers who work best in the essay form. Sure, mine’s a minority opinion. But I’m struck how — relieved of the exertion (and stakes) of persuasive invention — certain ...