The Shit in the Cheese: In Praise of Imperfect Prose

By Kate Keleher

I once met a brilliant, possibly deranged Frenchman who said something that I think about every time I sit down to write.

He was a professional affineur—an expert in the traditional process of ripening and aging cheeses in caves—and I was a recent liberal arts grad working as a babysitter, interviewing for a job at his fancy cheese shop, hungry for wisdom and guidance in any form. I listened to his screed against the American cheese industry like a lost soul seeking spir...