Writing True: The Art and Craft of Creative Nonfiction / Edition 1

by Sondra Perl, Mimi Schwartz

Overview

This innovative book teaches students how to write informative and engaging nonfiction that emphasizes voice and creativity and incorporates observation, research, memory, and point of view. Writing True serves as a valuable core textbook or a supplement for any creative writing or composition course with an emphasis on creative nonfiction. A solid pedagogical approach shows students how to be true to capturing the real world with integrity and creativity. The first part of the book, "Writing Creative Nonfiction," offers ten chapters of practical guidance, skill-building exercises, and ideas to help writers develop their creativity. The second part of the book, "Reading Creative Nonfiction," contains an anthology divided into Memoir, Personal Essay, Portrait, Essay of Place, and Literary Journalism. Selections include works by Nora Ephron, Tracy Kidder, Eric Liu, David Sedaris, and other well-known masters of the creative nonfiction genre. The anthology also includes a section entitled "Stories of Craft," with four prominent writers, including John Irving and Sue Miller, describing the challenges and rewards of writing creative nonfiction.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618370757
Publisher:	Cengage Learning
Publication date:	09/08/2005
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Sondra is the author of six books, among them, Landmark Essays on Writing Process; Felt Sense: Writing with the Body; 'Stepping on My Brother's Head' and Other Secrets Your English Professor Never Told You, creative nonfiction essays written by well-known writing teachers across the county and co-edited with Charles Schuster; and On Austrian Soil: Teaching Those I Was Taught to Hate, a memoir that tells the story of what happened to Sondra when she found herself teaching Austrian teachers whose parents had been Nazis. This book was a finalist in the 2006 Independent Booksellers Award for memoir and led to the creation of the Holocaust Educators Network, which Sondra now directs at the Memorial Library in New York City. A professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Sondra has received numerous awards and honors including a Guggenheim fellowship and the Professor of the Year Award from the Carnegie Foundation. For more info, go to www.thememoriallibary.org.

Mimi is the author of five books, most recently, Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father's German Village, a winner of the ForeWord Magazine for Best Memoir in 2008. Other books include Writing for Many Roles; Writer's Craft, Teacher's Art; and Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed, a memoir about life in a long marriage, what you get and give up for it that was a JCC Book Club Pick for nonfiction in 2002. Mimi's short work has appeared in over fifty venues, both academic (College English, English Journal, Chronicles of Higher Ed) and literary (The Missouri Review, Agni, Brevity, Tikkun, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Arts & Culture, River Teeth, Calyx, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times). Seven essays have been Notables in Best American Essays. Professor Emerita in Writing at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Mimi teaches writing workshops in creative nonfiction nationwide and abroad. For more information, go to www.MimiSchwartz.net.

Table of Contents

I. Writing Creative Nonfiction 1. Why Creative Nonfiction? 2. The Power of the Notebook 3. Ten Ways to a Draft 4. Taking Shape 5. Finding Voice Twenty Ways to Talk about Creative Nonfiction 6. Workshopping a Draft 7. The Craft of Revision 8. A Lighter Touch--or Other Ways to Tell a Story 9. The Role of Research 10. The Ethics of Creative Nonfiction II. Reading Creative Nonfiction A Preface to Our Anthology 11. Memoir Lisa Chavez, "Independence Day, Manley Hot Springs, Alaska" Tony Earley, "Somehow Form a Family" Nora Ephron, "A Word About Breasts" David Sedaris, "Let It Snow" Alice Walker, "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self" 12. Personal Essay Gerald N. Callahan, "Chimera" Brian Doyle, "Being Brians" Eric Liu, "Notes of a Native Speaker" Scott Russell Sanders, "Under the Influence" Kandi Tayebi, "Warring Memories" Connie Wieneke, "Snakebit" 13. Portrait Li-Young Lee, from The Winged Seed Charles Simic, "Dinner at Uncle Boris'" Alice Steinbach, "The Miss Dennis School of Writing" Susan Allen Toth, "Going to the Movies" 14. Essay of Place Gretel Ehrlich, "Island" Dagoberto Gilb, "Living al Chuco" Gretchen Legler, "Moments of Being: An Antarctic Quintet" Colson Whitehead, "The Port Authority" 15. Literary Journalism Anne Fadiman, "Do Doctors Eat Brains?" Tracy Kidder, from Among Schoolchildren Susan Orlean, "Meet the Shaggs" 16. Stories of Craft Patricia Hampl, "On Memory and Imagination" Steven Harvey, "The Art of Interruption" Sue Miller, "From a Lecture on Revision" Kim Stafford, "The Writer as Professional Eavesdropper" 17. Short Shorts Max Apple, "Roommates" Norma Elia Cantu, "Tino & Papi" Elizabeth Danson, "Lost" Alexander Fuller, "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" Kathleen Norris, "Rain" Maureen Stanton, "Water" Bailey White, "Buzzard" Notes on Contributors for Writing True Appendix: Resources to Know About