June 18, 2018
Think about how difficult it was for Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain to have lived two lives –public figures with amazingly successful careers, while each day confronting the awesome and often unimaginable challenges of living with and concealing mental illness. Could they have told their stories, shared their feelings of isolation and pain—outed themselves, so to speak–to their many friends and admirers?… Read More
June 03, 2018
Tom Wolfe, who died May 14 at 88, was perhaps best known in literary and journalistic circles, especially early on in his career, as the founder and the creator of what was called “the new journalism.” The truth is, however, that he did not particularly like the term and did not, as many believe, invent it.… Read More
May 05, 2018
Nurses in Honor and ActionI’ve been fortunate enough to edit dozens of books over the years—mostly, collections of new essays about subjects ranging from teachers to mental illness to the challenges of confronting end of life issues.
Making a book has a sort of rhythm to it.… Read More
April 21, 2018
Once on a train from Greenwich to Manhattan, on a Tuesday, I watched a man in a grey pinstriped suit, blue oxford cloth shirt and red tie, settle into a seat in front and to the left of me, open the New York Times he had been carrying under his arm and then, without hesitation, toss one unread section of the paper over his shoulder onto the empty seat behind him.… Read More
April 06, 2018
I have a friend, let’s call her Cindy, who is constantly encouraging me to read Dan Brown’s new book, Origin. “It’s creative nonfiction,” she insists.
“No,” I tell her, “it’s not.”
Brown’s book is the fifth installment of a series of mysteries about an academic, Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of religious symbology and religious iconology, who wants to end the age of religion and usher in the age of science.… Read More
March 24, 2018
I began writing creative nonfiction not because of a personal story I wanted to tell, but a story I wanted to create—part of a big idea—and kind of a life dream. I wanted to ride across the U.S. on a motorcycle.… Read More
March 03, 2018
Whatever happened to creative nonfiction? Or narrative nonfiction? Or literary journalism? Or new journalism, or long-form nonfiction?
I ask because I recently received a very unusual e-mail blast from Audible.com about a series of “obsessively specific categories” of literature called “Micro Genres.”… Read More
February 20, 2018
Ideas are everywhere—if a story goes with it.
One reason I love researching and writing creative nonfiction is because it opens up the entire world to a nonfiction writer. There are no parameters or boundaries about what to write about. The catalogue of categories is, in many ways, infinite.… Read More
February 06, 2018
People are always asking: “What exactly is creative nonfiction?”
The short answer, which appears on the banner of my magazine, Creative Nonfiction, is “True Stories Well Told.”
But here’s a longer answer:
Essentially, the mission of creative nonfiction is to communicate ideas and information in a cinematic way using the literary techniques employed by fiction writers—dialogue, description, detail, action, scenes, to introduce the characters behind the facts with action and excitement in a more compelling story-oriented way than with straight exposition or traditional journalism.… Read More
January 21, 2018
Many think that creative nonfiction is a relatively new literary art form, but it is actually a tried and true approach to writing dramatic and memorable nonfiction, with a newish name.
There are many terrific examples of creative nonfiction from early on.… Read More
January 06, 2018
I worked through the holiday season planning the creative nonfiction graduate course I will be teaching this spring term in Washington, D.C. And I am pretty excited about it.
You’d think after all of these years teaching creative nonfiction that the prospect of teaching a course—one that I have, in one way or another, taught dozens of times – that I would approach the first day of class basically calm and confident.… Read More
December 18, 2017
It seems like criticizing our nation’s capital is the “in” thing to do these days; we’re supposed to “drain the swamp.” But I’ve been working in DC for two years now—that is to say, about twice as long as a lot of the people currently leading the federal government—and I have come to appreciate the edge and vibe of the place.… Read More