George Saunders

George Saunders is an acclaimed fiction writer and essayist. He is a faculty member at Syracuse University, and Congratulations, by the Way was originally the commencement address that George Saunders delivered to Syracuse University’s class of 2013 on the day of their graduation. Saunders originally gained national recognition for his short stories, which have appeared in prominent publications and have been collected in various volumes. On the day of the commencement address, Saunders was introduced by a fellow faculty member as “one of our most accomplished professors.”

In his commencement address, Saunders repeatedly emphasizes the necessity of kindness in improving one’s life and the lives of others. The pursuit of increased kindness is the main focus of Saunders’s speech, and while he acknowledges the necessity of other focuses, such as personal ambition, Saunders points out that one must consistently focus on kindness rather than...