Twenty-five arresting selections from the groundbreaking journal that defined a genre.
Creative nonfiction, also known as narrative nonfiction, liberated journalism by inviting writers to dramatize, interpret, speculate, and even re-create their subjects. Lee Gutkind collects twenty-five essays that flourished on this new ground, all originally published in the journal he founded, Creative Nonfiction, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. Lauren Slater is a therapist in the institution where she was once a patient. John Edgar Wideman reacts passionately to the unjust murder of Emmett Till. Charles Simic tells of wild nights with Uncle Boris. John McPhee creates a rare, personal, album quilt. Terry Tempest Williams speaks on the decline of the prairie dog. Madison Smartt Bell invades Haiti. Many of the writers are crossing genres—from poetry and fiction to nonfiction—symbolic of Creative Nonfiction's scope and popularity. A cross section of the famous and those bound to become so, this collection is a riveting experience highlighting the expanding importance of this dramatic and exciting new genre.
| Introduction : notes for young writers | ||
| The creative nonfiction police? | ||
| Three spheres | 3 | |
| Looking at Emmett Till | 24 | |
| Shunned | 49 | |
| An album quilt | 71 | |
| Dinner at Uncle Boris's | 85 | |
| Prayer dogs | 92 | |
| What is it we really harvestin' here? | 109 | |
| The brown study | 119 | |
| Killing wolves | 133 | |
| Being Brians | 163 | |
| Language at play | 174 | |
| Finders keepers : the story of Joey Coyle | 189 | |
| Notes from a difficult case | 226 | |
| Adventures in celestial navigation | 245 | |
| Leaving Babylon : a walk through the Jewish divorce ceremony | 269 | |
| Gray area : thinking with a damaged brain | 288 | |
| Joe stopped by | 307 | |
| In the woods | 318 | |
| Sa'm Pedi | 331 | |
| Going native | 356 | |
| Chimera | 368 | |
| Mixed-blood stew | 382 | |
| Why I ride | 395 | |
| Delivering Lily | 419 |
Charlene01
Posted March 23, 2010
If you are the least bit interested in creative nonfiction, you will love this collection of stories. You can read them as a consumer or read them as a writer. Either way you will learn something. I am about halfway through the collection, and I know that this is the best among the best creative nonfiction to date.
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Overview
Twenty-five arresting selections from the groundbreaking journal that defined a genre.
Creative nonfiction, also known as narrative nonfiction, liberated journalism by inviting writers to dramatize, interpret, speculate, and even re-create their subjects. Lee Gutkind collects twenty-five essays that flourished on this new ground, all originally published in the journal he founded, Creative Nonfiction, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. Lauren Slater is a therapist in the ...