Writing Creative Nonfiction

&break;&break;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:

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

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

&break;&break;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.

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

&break;&break;Carolyn Forche - Master the journalistic ethics of creative nonfiction.

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

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

&break;&break;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.

&break;&break;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