Dave Eggers Cheers Us Up
At New York’s Tribeca Rooftop this week, members of the US Authors Guild honoured Dave Eggers for his work with 826 National , the nonprofit writing and tutoring charity for young people he founded seven years ago, in the Mission District of San Francisco, at 826 Valencia Street. His speech, as reported by The New Yorker, received a standing ovation — and no wonder. How great it is to read such a celebration of something we all care so deeply about:
“To any of you who are feeling down, and saying, ‘Oh, no one’s reading anymore’: Walk into 826 on any afternoon. There are no screens there, it’s all paper, it’s all students working shoulder to shoulder invested in their work, writing down something, thinking their work might get published. They put it all on the page, and they think, ‘Well, if this person who works next to me cares so much about what I’m writing, and they’re going to publish it in their next anthology or newspaper or whatever, then I’m going to invest so much more in it.’ And then meanwhile, they’re reading more than I did at their age. …
“Nothing has changed! The written word—the love of it and the power of the written word—it hasn’t changed. It’s a matter of fostering it, fertilizing it, not giving up on it, and having faith. Don’t get down. I actually have established an e-mail address, deggers@826national.org —if you want to take it down—if you are ever feeling down, if you are ever despairing, if you ever think publishing is dying or print is dying or books are dying or newspapers are dying (the next issue of McSweeney’s will be a newspaper—we’re going to prove that it can make it. It comes out in September). If you ever have any doubt, e-mail me, and I will buck you up and prove to you that you’re wrong.”