Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: I & Eye

by Bich Minh Nguyen, Porter Shreve

This anthology brings together 50 diverse works of contemporary creative nonfiction, from memoirs to personal essays to literary journalism, along with 15 craft essays.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Anthologies

400 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2004

About the author

Bich Minh Nguyen received the PEN/Jerard Award for her memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner, which was a Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2007 and a BookSense pick. It was also selected as The Great Michigan Read for 2009-2010. Bich has appeared on programs such as The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. She lives in Chicago and Indiana, where she teaches literature and creative writing at Purdue University.

Also writes as Beth Nguyen.

Reviews

[Kelly]

My take on it: This book is organized around standard nonfiction writing themes (e.g., profiles, place, science & nature), Each section repeats the following recipe: example stories falling into two categories: personal essay and literary journalism (hence the "I & Eye" subtitle) The sections wrap up with a smattering of craft essays by authors who are well-known for writing in their corollary subject. Tracy Kidder, Phillip Lopate and Scott Russell Sanders, for example, write the craft essays ending the section labeled "Portraits".

It's a great collection. the craft essays are a great writer's resource and the essays are moving my reading in new directions; I'm finding lots of wonderful new-to-me authors here.

[Itisme]

This is a text I got for a creative non-fiction course in early 2008. We read a good portion of the book for the class. And I have been dipping between the covers ever since. I finally decided at the about the middle of Jan. 09 to get the remaining essays read and add it to the have read pile.