Published in 20 languages, internationally best-selling author David Vann has written essays, stories, features, novels and a memoir. His books have won 15 prizes and appeared on 70 Best Books of the Year lists in a dozen countries.

Currently working on a translation of Beowulf, in this talk Vann reflects on his body of work, and the usefulness, and importance, of literary tradition. Where would this neo-classical author, writing out of an American landscape tradition, be without Greek tragedy, Old English meter, and Chaucer’s hagiography?