I was heavily into sports and devoted myself to track and cross country running."
In high school, however, Wallace "began to write extensively þ just diaries in which I sorted out my life and purged a lot of emotion." He also gained valuable experience by working on his school's newspaper. Wallace's evolution as a writer continued at New Jersey's Montclair State College. He took creative writing classes, including one that required him to pen a novel, one chapter per week. He also interned at the Passaic Herald-News, where he was later offered a paid writing and reporting position. Sports once again captured the majority of Wallace's attention, though. "I spent most of my energy on the track and cross country teams," he told AAYA. In fact, Wallace left college just two credits short of a degree. A couple of years later, he returned and completed "two one-credit, half-semester physical education courses (bowling and soccer) so I could get my degree and stop lying on my resume."
After graduating from Montclair State in 1980 with a bachelor of arts degree, Wallace told AAYA that he "played around with that novel [from creative writing class] for quite a few years." He finished the work and sent it to publishers, but "none took it because it's a disjointed, poorly planned book." Wallace did receive a "nice rejection letter" from Patricia Gauch, an editor at Philomel.
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