" John D' Agata is an alchemist who changes trash into purest gold." — Guy Davenport, "Harper' s" John D' Agata journeys the endless corridors of America' s myriad halls of fame and faithfully reports on what he finds there. In a voice all his own, he brilliantly maps his terrain in lists, collage, and ludic narratives. With topics ranging from Martha Graham to the Flat Earth Society, from the brightest light in Vegas to the artist Henry Darger, who died in obscurity, "Halls of Fame" hovers on the brink between prose and poetry, deep seriousness and high comedy, the subject and the self.

"John D'Agata is an alchemist who changes trash into purest gold." --Guy Davenport, "Harper's"

John D'Agata journeys the endless corridors of America's myriad halls of fame and faithfully reports on what he finds there. In a voice all his own, he brilliantly maps his terrain in lists, collage, and ludic narratives. With topics ranging from Martha Graham to the Flat Earth Society, from the brightest light in Vegas to the artist Henry Darger, who died in obscurity, "Halls of Fame" hovers on the brink between prose and poetry, deep seriousness and high comedy, the subject and the self.

"John D'Agata is an alchemist who changes trash into purest gold." --Guy Davenport, "Harper's"

John D'Agata journeys the endless corridors of America's myriad halls of fame and faithfully reports on what he finds there. In a voice all his own, he brilliantly maps his terrain in lists, collage, and ludic narratives. With topics ranging from Martha Graham to the Flat Earth Society, from the brightest light in Vegas to the artist Henry Darger, who died in obscurity, "Halls of Fame" hovers on the brink between prose and poetry, deep seriousness and high comedy, the subject and the self.

John D?Agata was born in 1974 on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A graduate of the Iowa Writers? Workshop, he holds M.F.A.s in both nonfiction and poetry and is currently editor of lyric essays for Seneca Review. He lives in New England.