The-Essayist
What happened to the writer is not what matters; what matters is the large sense that the writer is able to make of what happened.
Vivian Gornick
While I have authored a fair number of research reports in psychology, it is only recently that I have decided to try my hand at writing personal essays. The personal essay is said to be “notoriously flexible.” Perhaps that’s why I took a liking to it almost instantly and why I found my background in social research congenial to the form. Phillip Lopate put the matter well in his Introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay. “One would like to think that the personal essay represents a kind of basic research on the self, in ways that are allied with science and philosophy.” By virtue of predisposition and training, this way of writing has become almost second nature to me. Lopate describes the personal essay as conversational, informal, and intimate. He says it is also confessional, playful, and honest. I agree. Writing the essays that I have placed on the-essayist has been great fun and, at times, even illuminating. I hope you might come to feel the same in reading them.
About Richard Katzev
For the past 20 years I have been President of Public Policy Research, a social and environmental research firm (www.publicpolicyresearch.net). Before then I served as Professor of Psychology at Reed College for over 25 years. Along the way I have authored four books, Promoting Energy Conservation, Anecdote and Evidence: Essays Linking Social Research with Personal Experience, A Sense of Place and the forthcoming volume, In the Country of Books. I can be contacted at rkatzev@teleport.com
