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Creating Nonfiction
152 pages
English

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152 pages
English

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Description

Gold Winner for Anthologies, 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards

With a title that suggests both the genre and the process of composing it, Creating Nonfiction is a collection of essays and interviews that aims to open readers' and writers' eyes to the formal possibilities of creative nonfiction. Included are memoirs, personal essays, literary journalism, graphic essays, and lyric essays, and the content is equally diverse, with topics ranging from childbirth to child labor, from dandelions to domestic violence.

Whereas most anthologies leave readers to speculate about the evolution of each contribution, Creating Nonfiction provides companion interviews that offer insight into the inspiration, drafting, and revision process that produced the essays. Cheryl Strayed talks about how working as a reporter for her hometown newspaper influenced her later writings. Dinty W. Moore reflects on the delicate balance between observation and judgment when writing about subjects whose values differ from your own. Kristen Radtke explains how she decides between textual and visual images when creating a graphic essay. Although they offer an eclectic mix of voices and styles, what these essays all have in common is that ultimately, as contributor Faith Adiele observes, "truth becomes art."
Introduction

1. “Kestrel Avenue” by Cheryl Strayed
Interview with Cheryl Strayed

2. “Free to Good Home” by Lori Jakiela
Interview with Lori Jakiela

3. “Tooth and Claw” by Dinty W. Moore
Interview with Dinty W. Moore

4. “The Collection” by Mary Quade
Interview with Mary Quade

5. “Footnotes & Endnotes” by Michael Martone
Interview with Michael Martone

6. “How to Cure a Fright” by Kelle Groom
Interview with Kelle Groom

7. “The City of the Century” by Kristen Radtke
Interview with Kristen Radtke

8. “Apocalypse, Darling” by Barrie Jean Borich
Interview with Barrie Jean Borich

9. “Birth Geographic” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Interview with Aimee Nezhukumatathil

10. “How to Give a Baby a Bath” by Marcia Aldrich
Interview with Marcia Aldrich

11. “Seven Fathoms Down” by Steven Church
Interview with Steven Church

12. “Slow Burn” by Erin Murphy
Interview with Erin Murphy

13. “Gunslinging” by Angela Morales
Interview with Angela Morales

14. “The Third Step” by Sheryl St. Germain
Interview with Sheryl St. Germain

15. “My Wobbly Bicycle, 29” by Fleda Brown
Interview with Fleda Brown

16. “Students of the Route” by Jen Hirt
Interview with Jen Hirt

17. “Terremoto” by Toby Thompson
Interview with Toby Thompson

18. “Of Ships and Men” by Cameron Conaway
Interview with Cameron Conaway

19. “How to Make Sense of the Postcolonial Nation-State: A Definition Essay Using Material Lifted Almost Entirely from the Internet as Annotated by the Author, Herself a Nigerian American” by Faith Adiele
Interview with Faith Adiele

20. “YouTube’s Winged Chariot: On Time, Memory, and Internet Video” by Jeffrey Hammond
Interview with Jeffrey Hammond

Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index

Sujets

Memoir

Informations

Publié par
Date de parution 08 mars 2016
Nombre de lectures 0
EAN13 9781438461175
Langue English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,1248€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Creating Nonfiction
Creating Nonfiction
Twenty Essays and Interviews with the Writers
Edited by
Jen Hirt and Erin Murphy
Cover image: “MAKE A WISH” © Leslie F. Miller
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2016 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Jenn Bennett
Marketing, Fran Keneston
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Creating nonfiction : twenty essays and interviews with the writers / edited by Jen Hirt and Erin Murphy.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-6115-1 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4384-6116-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4384-6117-5 (e-book) 1. American essays—21st century. 2. Reportage literature, American. 3. Creative nonfiction. 4. Authors—Interviews. I. Hirt, Jen, 1975– editor. II. Murphy, Erin, 1968– editor.
PS689.C74 2016
814'.6—dc23
2015027726
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Paul and Rich and all of our students
Contents Introduction ONE “Kestrel Avenue” by Cheryl Strayed Interview with Cheryl Strayed TWO “Free to Good Home” by Lori Jakiela Interview with Lori Jakiela THREE “Tooth and Claw” by Dinty W. Moore Interview with Dinty W. Moore FOUR “The Collection” by Mary Quade Interview with Mary Quade FIVE “Footnotes Endnotes” by Michael Martone Interview with Michael Martone SIX “How to Cure a Fright” by Kelle Groom Interview with Kelle Groom SEVEN “The City of the Century” by Kristen Radtke Interview with Kristen Radtke EIGHT “Apocalypse, Darling” by Barrie Jean Borich Interview with Barrie Jean Borich NINE “Birth Geographic” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil Interview with Aimee Nezhukumatathil TEN “How to Give a Baby a Bath” by Marcia Aldrich Interview with Marcia Aldrich ELEVEN “Seven Fathoms Down” by Steven Church Interview with Steven Church TWELVE “Slow Burn” by Erin Murphy Interview with Erin Murphy THIRTEEN “Gunslinging” by Angela Morales Interview with Angela Morales FOURTEEN “The Third Step” by Sheryl St. Germain Interview with Sheryl St. Germain FIFTEEN “My Wobbly Bicycle, 29” by Fleda Brown Interview with Fleda Brown SIXTEEN “Students of the Route” by Jen Hirt Interview with Jen Hirt SEVENTEEN “Terremoto” by Toby Thompson Interview with Toby Thompson EIGHTEEN “Of Ships and Men” by Cameron Conaway Interview with Cameron Conaway NINETEEN “How to Make Sense of the Postcolonial Nation-State: A Definition Essay Using Material Lifted Almost Entirely from the Internet as Annotated by the Author, Herself a Nigerian American” by Faith Adiele Interview with Faith Adiele TWENTY “YouTube’s Winged Chariot: On Time, Memory, and Internet Video” by Jeffrey Hammond Interview with Jeffrey Hammond Acknowledgments Contributors Index
Introduction
What I write is smarter than I am, because I can re-write it.
—Susan Sontag
I
Before Creating Nonfiction , there was Making Poems .
I co-edited Making Poems: Forty Poems with Commentary by the Poets (State University of New York Press, 2010) with Todd Davis. We first conceived of the project after observing that our undergraduate creative writing students assumed that the published poems assigned for class had been composed in one sitting, in a moment of divine inspiration. They could not imagine that the poets had written dozens, if not hundreds, of drafts along the way. This assumption left the students feeling terribly inadequate; if their poems weren’t as polished as a poem by, say, Pulitzer Prize–winner and U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, why should they even bother to write?
By introducing readers to the poems and to each poet’s process, we hoped to dispel the myth that good writers always write good first drafts. We also wanted readers to see where writers get their ideas and what choices they make as they revise their work. Because I also teach and write creative nonfiction, it occurred to me that a similar anthology would benefit writers of this genre. And so Creating Nonfiction: Twenty Essays and Interviews with the Writers was born.
Jen and I wanted to create an anthology that represents the diversity of the creative nonfiction genre, as well as a range of strategies for revising. This collection includes memoirs, lyric essays, personal narratives, literary journalism essays, a graphic essay, and—highlighting what is now the dominant platform for creative nonfiction—an essay that appeared originally as a blog post. The styles include—among others—traditional frames, collage, and definition essays. The content is equally diverse: from childbirth to child labor, from dandelions to domestic violence. These essays take you from the oncology ward in northern Michigan to the shores of Bangladesh, with a number of other stops along the way. Some of the essays are poignant, others humorous. Several are both. What they all have in common is that ultimately, as contributor Faith Adiele expresses it, “truth becomes art.”
We decided on the interview as the best method for capturing each writer’s process. When formulating questions for contributors—and for each other—Jen and I kept two things in mind: (1) What did we want to know about the writing of this essay? (2) What could the writer share that would help us write a similar essay? Many of the answers surprised us. Steven Church’s “Seven Fathoms Down,” for instance, began not with personal experience but with a self-assigned prompt in which he forced himself to write an essay focusing on the words “cockles,” “fathom,” and “sounding.” Other responses confirmed what we suspected: that many of the essays originally took other shapes before the writers found the final form. Marcia Aldrich’s “How to Give a Baby a Bath” began as an instructional exercise for a composition class; the long-lost draft evolved in her mind for years before it became the essay that is included here.
When Todd and I edited Making Poems , we knew that the anthology would appeal to emerging writers of all ages and levels. What we didn’t realize is how many nonwriters would appreciate the book. I once met a neurosurgeon who had read Making Poems . He said he “couldn’t put it down” because so much of what the writers were saying about process applied not only to writing but to other fields as well. Jen and I hope that the same is true of Creating Nonfiction: Twenty Essays and Interviews with the Writers .
Erin Murphy, Co-editor
II
So many metaphors of assembly help us understand how to write creative nonfiction. We talk in about weaving narratives and braiding strands of stories . There is the thematic thread and the patchwork of anecdotes that come together not unlike a quilt. The language of handiwork is useful, too— dovetailing two disparate events into one, nailing down a title, or polishing a paragraph until it shines. These terms are useful, but, like their crafty counterparts, they take years to perfect, whether you tinker with them as a hobby or make them your career. In editing Creating Nonfiction: Twenty Essays and Interviews with the Writers , Erin and I found ourselves using those same words to organize this collection in a sequence that goes beyond a traditional alphabetical arrangement, and our hope is that the sequence proves to be as useful as it is enlightening.
Don’t worry: there is an alphabetical listing in the index for easy reference. But consider reading these essays in sequence to see, for example, how Kristen Radtke’s short graphic essay about a deteriorating Detroit informs the Chicago-based essay that follows it, Barrie Jean Borich’s longer narrative of “Apocalypse, Darling.” Or consider the pairing of humor—Lori Jakiela’s darkly bitter reflection on how her family spoke of her adoption, which precedes Dinty W. Moore’s lighthearted insights about unwanted dandelions and neighborly politics. Topics are paired as well. For example, we have a duo of birth essays—both take experimental approaches, with Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s lyrical piece verging on a poem, and Marcia Aldrich’s essay written in second person, almost like instructions. Another pairing deals with health and recovery; Sheryl St. Germain’s honest appraisal of addiction in “The Third Step” segues into Fleda Brown’s outlook on cancer recovery in the blog post “My Wobbly Bicycle, 29.” Our sequence also alternates between well-known writers and emerging writers. Read a favorite author, and then discover a new voice on the next page.
How else might a reader use this anthology? Introductory creative writing classes will learn much from the valuable range presented here. Creative nonfiction, they will learn, can cover a lot of territory. Advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and anyone in a survey or literature course will benefit from the insight afforded by the interviews. Most importantly, though, this book is useful for the general reader, the lover of true stories told as creatively (and honestly) as possible. The interviews add a whole new layer of honesty, that thing we crave in a world of duplicity and fakery. There, you will find writers explaining their choices, grappling with the tough decisions (some still uncertain about them, in fact!), and engaging in an ongoing dialogue about the many ways to make an essay.
Jen Hirt, Co-editor

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