Writing Creative Nonfiction

List Price: $18.99
Our Price: $8.80
You Save: $10.19 (54%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.56 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9781884910500
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of Writing Creative Nonfiction

Book Review: A Journey for Writers and Teachers of Writing
Summary: 5 Stars

It's a compendium of essays and writing exercises written by various authors from poet to essayist to magazine feature article writer, with some selections of their writings at the end of the book.

Don't let the long titles of mini-chapters steer you away from this book. For example, one chapter is entitled "Saying goodbye to once upon a time or implementing postmodernism in creative nonfiction." It may sound daunting, but the chapter is written clearly, creatively and thoughtfully about how fact, truth and fiction often get tangled when we write. The author of this chapter, Laura Wexler, shows us that the only place we can find cold, hard facts is in fairy tales. Yes, that's right. Fairy tales. Because in a fairy tale we can all say with certainty that Cinderella lost her glass slipper and Prince Charming found it and placed it on her foot, and they got married. But life isn't like that. And neither is nonfiction writing.

Wexler writes, regarding the Rodney King beating: "The Rodney King beating cannot be told as a fairy tale. There is no single true version of What Happened. Because everything about it is up for grabs, everything is unstable: motives, actions, and interpretations. It seems we cannot, despite Rodney King's famous plea, 'all get along' -- because we tell different stories about the same events. We always do." Wexler, however, does not leave us perlexed and discouraged about this "fact." Instead she offers insights and advice on how to write while remembering the nebulous qualitites of truth, fact, and fiction.

Incidentally, references to recent events such as the Rodney King beating pepper the essays throughout the book making it "fresh" and "new."

Not every chapter is as captivating as the one described above, and occasionally, some of the authors of the essays tend to become preocuppied with their knowledge of other authors and writing. And although I enjoyed the chapter on humor writing, I had hoped for much more on this subject. We need not be told that irony, satire and exaggeration are tools in humorous writing; rather we need to be shown how to use them, what works, and what doesn't.

The writing and interviewing exercises in the book are worthwhile, and I would have liked more. One example: Interview separately two people who were involved in the same event. Transcribe the interviews and consider the similarities and differences in the two versions.

This exercise is terrific for journalists as well as creative writers.

As a writer and editor, I found the book to be reaffirming as well as challenging. Many of the writing philosophies I've developed over the years are explained in exemplary fashion in this book. I am eager to work with my students on the exercises, and to share some of the chapters with my writing and editing colleagues.

Sheryl De Vore Assistant Managing Editor, Pioneer Press Senior Lecturer, Northwestern University, Journalism Department sdevore@voyager.net

Summary of Writing 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:

Terry Tempest Williams - Analyze your motivation for writing, its value, and its strength.

Alan Cheuse - Discover how interesting, compelling essays can be drawn from every corner of your life and the world in which you live.

Phillip Lopate - Build your narrator?yourself?into a fully fleshed-out character, giving your readers a clearer, more compelling idea of who is speaking and why they should listen.

Robin Hemley - Develop a narrative strategy for structuring your story and making it cohesive.

Carolyn Forche - Master the journalistic ethics of creative nonfiction.

Dinty W. Moore - Use satire, exaggeration, juxtaposition, and other forms of humor in creative nonfiction.

Philip Gerard - Understand the narrative stance?why and how an author should, or should not, enter into the story.

Through insightful prompts and exercises, these contributors help make the challenge of writing creative nonfiction?whether biography, true-life adventure, memoir, or narrative history?a welcome, rewarding endeavor.

You'll also find an exciting, creative nonfiction "reader" comprising the final third of the book, featuring pieces from Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, Beverly Lowry, Phillip Lopate, and more?selections so extraordinary, they will teach, delight, inspire, and entertain you for years to come!

Among the book's most interesting sections, perhaps because their subject matter is underrepresented in writing-reference literature, are those about biography. Philip Furia discusses the need both to conduct an unbelievable amount of research and to leave a whole bunch of it out. And Honor Moore focuses on the intensity of biography writing: "I had no idea I was getting into twelve long years during which I would put preoccupation with someone else's life ahead of attention to my own." --Jane Steinberg

Art History Books

• Books > Subjects > Arts & Photography
• Literature & Fiction
• Education & Reference > Words & Language
• Writing
• New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature > Creative Writing & Composition