Dave Eggers at the NYS Writers Institute in 2004
An excerpt from an 2004 appearance by author and humorist Dave Eggars at the New York State Writers Institute.
At the age of 22, during his senior year of college, Dave Eggers became the guardian of his 8-year-old brother, Christopher, after they were orphaned by the deaths of both of their parents from cancer within a five month period. Eggers recounts his experiences as a "single mother" in the postmodern literary memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000). The book is told by means of a playful, experimentally structured narrative, despite the fact that it deals with deeply serious issues, including death, grief and parenthood (as well as several non-serious issues, including the author's obsessive quest to make an appearance on the MTV reality show, "The Real World").
The book, which became a New York Times bestseller, garnered a cult following. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (2000), quickly became a New York Times bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and was named Best Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Time.
Eggers first novel was You Shall Know Our Velocity (2002, revised as Sacrament 2003), the story of two young Americans who travel around the world (Senegal, Morocco, Estonia and Latvia) handing out money to very poor people. Just before his appearance here, How We Are Hungry (2004), a collection of short stories, was published.
He has also been associated with a number of offbeat periodicals. At the age of 24, Eggers founded Might magazine, a satirical San Francisco-based publication. After serving as a guest editor at Esquire, Eggers founded the quarterly McSweeney's.
For more information about this appearance, see www.albany.edu/writers-inst
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