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Writing Creative Nonfiction
Experience the power and the promise of working in today' most exciting literary form: Creative Nonfiction
"Writing Creative Nonfiction" presents more than thirty essays examining every key element of the craft, from researching ideas and structuring the story, to reportage and personal reflection. You'll learn from some of today's top creative nonfiction writers, including...more
"Writing Creative Nonfiction" presents more than thirty essays examining every key element of the craft, from researching ideas and structuring the story, to reportage and personal reflection. You'll learn from some of today's top creative nonfiction writers, including...more
Paperback, 400 pages
Published
May 10th 2001
by Writer's Digest Books
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Half how-to essays and half anthology of creative nonfiction, this had some worthy material in it, even though I don't aspire to the exact sort of creative nonfiction the writers had in mind. I found Phillip Lopate's "Writing Personal Essays: on the Necessity of Turning Yourself into a Character" particulatly helpful, as was the insight of "The Loneliness of the Long-distance Writer" by Robin Hemley (I will be watchful for the 100-page hump in the future). I enjoyed Annie Dillard's "Flying in th...more
It took me longer than I’d hoped, but I finally finished the lengthy Writing Creative Nonfiction collection. The book is divided into two sections: essays dedicated to the craft of writing, and examples of essays and short stories written by authors who personify these skills. The mix of inspiration and instruction make this a good resource for new MFA students (like myself).
It was fascinating to see Brenda Miller’s take on the braided essay in A Braided Heart: Shaping the Lyric Essay. In it she...more
It was fascinating to see Brenda Miller’s take on the braided essay in A Braided Heart: Shaping the Lyric Essay. In it she...more
I contend the book brought a sense of psychological experience as opposed to reality. The conflict in the auhtor's minds (in most of the pieces) reflected a perception of reality instead of reality itself. This book's reading reflect this concept. One author even wrote a piece describing his own body--I strongly recommend not reading that particular piece thought. Too much detail.
Throughout the book, I found some ideas to be brash, controversial, and gratuitious at times. However, some of the o...more
Throughout the book, I found some ideas to be brash, controversial, and gratuitious at times. However, some of the o...more
With essays the likes of "On the Necessity of Turning Oneself Into a Character", "Researching Your Own Life", and "Taking Yourself Out of the Story", this is a good read if you're at all interested in writing about your life. The essays are are also followed by exercises.
Mar 12, 2008
John Maberry
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
New writers, especially of memoirs and other forms of creative nonfiction
Recommended to John by:
Joann Glenn
Shelves:
on-writing
This book may not be 100% comprehensive (a tad redundant, perhaps), but if there is any other one out there that has more to offer on addressing the varieties of style, structure, form and the creative nonfiction process, I haven't seen it. Being new to the business in 2003 when I began working on Waiting for Westmoreland in earnest, I found the instuctions and insights illuminating, inspiring and confusing all at once. How to choose?! I felt like Alice on her journey after the rabbit. Still, it...more
Some of the craft essays were useful, but overall the extreme emphasis on socal/political essays rendered the book largely irrelevant to the kind of work I prefer to read and write.
The authors of the essays in this book also contributed a piece of nonfiction to the volume. You can see if they follow their own advice!
I mistakenly removed this book. (oh dear).
Started well though.
Started well though.
I couldn't really get into it--I read the Gutkind essay and skimmed the rest--mainly because I just have too much stuff to read right now and this was due back to the library.
This anthology has a good mix of practical essays, like the one about legal matters particular to nonfiction writers, and artsy creative pieces. Represents the genre pretty well.
I only read the essays on topics that interest me so can't review the whole book...it's a big enough collection to sift through for what you need. Well-edited, relevant, strong contributors.
Good. Essays by a dozen different writers. Also exercises.
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Carolyn Forché was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1950. She studied at Michigan State University and earned an MFA from Bowling Green State University. Forché is the author of four books of poetry: Blue Hour (HarperCollins, 2004); The Angel of History (1994), which received the Los Angeles Times Book Award; The Country Between Us (1982), which received the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di C...more
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