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Creative nonfiction
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Creative nonfiction (sometimes known as literary nonfiction) is a type of writing which uses literary skills in the writing of nonfiction. A work of creative nonfiction, if well-written, is factually true and artistically elegant. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which should also contain accurate information, but is not primarily written in service to its craft.
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Forms within this genre include personal essays, memoir, travel writing, food writing, biography, literary journalism, blended forms such as Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir, Fun Home, lyric essays, braided essays, and even hermit crab essays (this last form, popularized by writer and teacher Brenda Miller, uses a recognizable non-narrative framework such as a grocery list or recipe). Creative nonfiction varies in length from the "flash" nonfiction found in the journal Brevity to classic magazine-length essays such as Virginia Woolf's Death of a Moth (a topic later revisited by Annie Dillard) to mighty tomes such as James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
As a genre, creative nonfiction is notable for its lack of conventions. Creative nonfiction may be structured like traditional fiction narratives, as is true of Fenton Johnson's story of love and loss, Geography of the Heart, and Virginia Holman's Rescuing Patty Hearst. When book-length works of creative nonfiction follow a story-like arc, they are sometimes called narrative nonfiction. Creative nonfiction often escapes traditional boundaries of narrative altogether, as happens in the bittersweet banter of Natalia Ginzburg's essay, He and I, and in John McPhee's hypnotic tour of Atlantic City, In Search of Marvin Gardens.
Some writers have advocated liberalizing the concept of "creative nonfiction" to incorporate other forms, such as poetry. For example, some writers classify the work of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, such as Lyn Hejinian's My Life, as creative nonfiction, arguing this piece is a memoir formed by linked poems. These debates underscore the porous, flexible nature of this genre.
The wide range of creative nonfiction is showcased in annual collections such as Best American Essays; literary journals such as Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Tin House, Gastronomica, and The American Scholar; and compilations such as The Art of the Personal Essay (edited by Phillip Lopate) and Best American Essays of the Century (edited by Joyce Carol Oates).
Noted practitioners of creative nonfiction include
- James Baldwin: Notes of a Native Son
- Alison Bechdel: Fun Home
- Mark Bowden: Black Hawk Down
- Bill Bryson: writer of humorous travelogues
- Truman Capote: In Cold Blood, Capote's reporting on the murder of a family in Kansas, was hailed as an invention of a new genre--creative nonfiction or nonfiction novel.
- Lewis Buzbee, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop
- Philip K. Dick: VALIS Dick is noted mainly as a Science Fiction author but VALIS, chronicling a psychic or - possibly - psychotic episode is also an Autobiographical novel.
- Joan Didion: Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Salvador, The Year of Magical Thinking, for which she won the 2005 National Book Award. The Year of Magical Thinking also became a Broadway play.
- Annie Dillard: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, The Writing Life
- Gretel Ehrlich: The Solace of Open Spaces
- Eduardo Galeano: Memory of Fire, Days and Nights of Love and War
- Adam Gopnik: Paris to the Moon, Through the Children's Gate
- Lee Gutkind: Editor of the journal, Creative Nonfiction
- John Hersey: Hiroshima
- Derrick Jensen: Endgame, A Language Older Than Words
- Sebastian Junger: The Perfect Storm details the fate of the swordfishing boat the Andrea Gail and its crew when they are swept into a storm of gigantic proportions.
- Mary Karr: The Liars' Club
- John A Keel "The Mothman Prophecies" Participant observation, journalistic and part-memoir account paranormal events in West Virginia.
- Thomas Keneally: Schindler's Ark
- Maxine Hong Kingston: The Woman Warrior
- Chuck Klosterman: Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto and Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
- Jon Krakauer: Into the Wild, Into Thin Air
- Phillip Lopate: Getting Personal, Against Joie de Vivre
- Norman Mailer: Mailer won the Pulitzer Prize for two nonfiction books: The Executioner's Song, and Armies of the Night.
- John McPhee: Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The New Yorker, and the author of 27 books, including Uncommon Carriers and Oranges. His works reflect eclectic interests including geology, transportation, and various prominent figures like Bill Bradley and David Brower.[1]
- James Alan McPherson
- Davis Miller: The Tao of Muhammad Ali is the best known of a series of meditative and autobiographical works drawing heavily on fictional techniques.
- Dinty W. Moore: editor of Brevity and author of "The Accidental Buddhist."
- Joyce Carol Oates: On Boxing, which includes a portrait of Mike Tyson.
- Susan Orlean: The Orchid Thief''
- Robert Pirsig: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Autobiographical novel exploring issues of philosophy.
- George Plimpton: Paper Lion
- Chuck Palahniuk: Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories
- Ruth Reichl: Tender at the Bone
- Richard Rodriguez: a writer often specializing in issues of sensitivity - race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
- W.G. Sebald: The Rings of Saturn
- Gay Talese: "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold", one of the finest examples of journalistic nonfiction.
- Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Hell's Angels
- Bob Woodward: All the President's Men, Bush at War
- Tom Wolfe: Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Right Stuff
- Virginia Woolf: A Room of One's Own
- Tom Wolfe and Edward Warren Johnson: The New Journalism - 1975 collection of pieces by noted exponents of the creative nonfiction.
- Lee Gutkind: In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction – Collected pieces from literary journal Creative Nonfiction with reflective commentaries.
- Caroline Forche and Philip Gerard: Writing Creative Nonfiction - 30 essays on practice of writing creative nonfiction.
In recent years, several well-publicized incidents within the United States have tarnished the reputation of creative nonfiction in terms of its (perceived) loose rein on journalistic ethics and standards, or its glorification of interpretation. The most recent example of these incidents is the James Frey controversy in regards to his memoir A Million Little Pieces. In his memoir, Frey claimed to certain experiences, which later were revealed to be fabrications.[2]
The genre of creative nonfiction has been criticised for including the types of falsification that were revealed in Frey's work. Some participants in the genre would remind us that they are reading literature, not an archival document. However, this is not generally the case, and its proponents often work with high journalistic integrity before, during, or after their work in the genre. Many creative nonfiction works have been published by ethical publications like The New Yorker (for example, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, or Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief). However, the issue of ethics is an important one that creative nonfiction must continue to address as it grows.
Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has opened a new option for legal students, using creative nonfiction as a foundation. Using the reasoning that lawyers are called on to produce creative leadership in controversial and complex issues, Hamline began offering a program of creative writing for lawyers, that explores political and social issues through fiction and creative nonfiction writing.[3] The program was designed to teach students to use creativity and imagination when solving legal problems.[3]
- ^ Princeton University (2007). Humanities fellows bring wide-ranging perspectives to campus (English). Princeton University. Retrieved on October 2, 2007.
- ^ Cite error 8; No text given.
- ^ a b Asian American Press. Hamline offers JD/MFA in Creative Writing (English). Asian American Press. Retrieved on October 2, 2007.
4. Tracy, S. (2004). The Construction of Correctional Officers: Layers of Emotionality Behind Bars. Qualitative Inquiry. 509-533
- Creative Nonfiction, a journal devoted exclusively to the genre
- Fourth Genre, a journal devoted to explorations in nonfiction
- Sightline Books, the Iowa Series in Literary Nonfiction
- What is creative non-fiction? Phil Druker, University of Idaho
- Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage
- Sixbillion.org, an online magazine of narrative journalism
- Bruce Dobler's Creative Nonfiction Compendium, Bruce Dobler, University of Pittsburgh
- Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction, Canada
- Brevity Magazine
- India, India
- Dinty W. Moore's Brevity Magazine
- Writing It Real -- several free articles.
- MA Creative Writing (Narrative Nonfiction) at City University London
- [1] The AWP Official Guide to Writing Programs
- WORKING AUTHOR A Web site devoted to contemporary non-fiction, encompassing both personal and journalistic aspects.
- Online MA in Creative Writing & New Media (includes a module on Creative Nonfiction) at De Montfort University, Leicester
- Audio CSPAN - Interview with Lee Gutkind gives a definition of the genre
- Audio CSPAN - Interview with Lee Gutkind gives examples of authors who write in the genre