"Starting in 2005, John Griswold began publishing his nonfiction essays in Inside Higher Ed, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Brevity, Ninth Letter, and Adjunct Advocate under the pen name Oronte Churm. This collection contains heavily revised previously published essays but much more new material covering a wide range of topics riffing on the writing life-from the utility of creative writing to babies, and from race issues in a university town to crocodiles....