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In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction
Studio : W. W. Norton & Company
by W. W. Norton & Company
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Released : 2004-11-30
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780393326659
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 11 reviews)
List Price : $16.95
Our Price : $9.45
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Product Description |
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Twenty-five arresting selections from the groundbreaking journal that defined a genre. Creative nonfiction, also known as narrative nonfiction, liberated journalism by inviting writers to dramatize, interpret, speculate, and even re-create their subjects. Lee Gutkind collects twenty-five essays that flourished on this new ground, all originally published in the journal he founded, Creative Nonfiction, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. Lauren Slater is a therapist in the institution where she was once a patient. John Edgar Wideman reacts passionately to the unjust murder of Emmett Till. Charles Simic tells of wild nights with Uncle Boris. John McPhee creates a rare, personal, album quilt. Terry Tempest Williams speaks on the decline of the prairie dog. Madison Smartt Bell invades Haiti. Many of the writers are crossing genres—from poetry and fiction to nonfiction—symbolic of Creative Nonfiction's scope and popularity. A cross section of the famous and those bound to become so, this collection is a riveting experience highlighting the expanding importance of this dramatic and exciting new genre. |
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From Notebook to Story |
In my newspaper days, recorded in my reporter's notebooks was every story's genesis. Almost daily I set out from the newsroom, notebook in hand, ready to write stories of cross-pulling preacher-bikers, social club ladies, native plant gardeners, and an ex Hanoi Hilton POW, all people and experiences I thought I might one day weave into my grapplings with fiction.
A stack of weathered, worn notebooks, an image that evokes stories ready to be told. It's the image on the cover of In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, a selection of 25 essays from the first 10 years of the literary magazine Creative Nonfiction founded by Lee Gutkind, the "Godfather behind creative nonfiction."
Each piece in the collection is representative of the genre, a sort of nebulously-monikered genre that encompasses almost every form of nonfiction: personal essay, traditional reflective essays, and New Journalism or literary journalism, reportage that largely relies on narrative to get its information and ideas across.
These pieces, each in their own way, seem to capture the spirit of the journal Gutkind founded, which he reports in his introduction to the collection is a mix of "good old-fashioned reporting -- facts, plus story and reflection or contemplation." Like journalists -- and some as Mark Bowden are journalists -- practitioners of creative nonfiction take out their notebooks and collect interviews and gather other documentation and report their stories, but they immerse themselves in the worlds of meth addicts who stumble upon a cache of money, as Bowden does, or report and reflect upon their experience of becoming a father, as Phillip Lopate does.
These essays are not works of confessional "navel gazers," as Gutkind reports James Wolcott infamously quipped in Vanity Fair magazine. They are explorations into the world, engaging the reader, as writers always have, seeking out, as Gutkind himself has sought as a writer, "other lifestyles, other professions, and the patchwork of prejudices and kindness that make some people different from others." The pieces take us deeper into the world to discover the play of language, as Diane Ackerman does, or provide insight into the workings of the brain and mind and whether there is a separation between the concept of the "mind" and the physical brain, as Floyd Skloot does.In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction |
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Deliciously Cathartic |
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The diversity of themes in this collection provide a great deal of satisfaction while you're reading. I found almost all the stories incredibly compelling and they all touched upon an aspect of life that I haven't thought about in a while. I'm currently disabled and I haven't been able to go to school as I'd planned, but I'm going back next year, and I feel that this book is an excellent tool for preparing me for critiques, analysation, and the challenging environment that Cornell is going to offer. |
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HISTRIONIC & MELODRAMATIC SPIN |
IN FACT is an anthology of personal narrative stories. The stories are well-written and powerful for the first reading. The story about celestial navigation is my favorite.
But after reflection, the stories seem histrionic and melodramatic. Take the celestial navigation story for example. The writer packages the navigation as life & death magic that snatches the lost sailor away from boat killing rocks and shoals in the nick of time, but he had a GPS (satellite) locator in his pocket. The thrill isnt real. He was never in peril.
I dont care for Annie Dillard's commentary about the state of publishing. It may be true that young girls in New York City decide what all of us read, but enough good stuff gets into print inspite of them. Annie comes across as a bit of a wet blanket.
The stories are well-written and interesting, but the drama is inflated. |
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Anthology befitting the genre of creative nonfiction |
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction is a triumphant statement about Lee Gutkind's original goals in 1993 for Creative Nonfiction, the journal. This collection of essays shows the depth explored in the journal in its first 11 years, and could also be considered a history of the genre's current incarnation.
Beginning with Annie Dillard's introduction, a collection of pearls of wisdom for young writers, In Fact takes readers on a sometimes-jolting ride through the creation and development of both the journal and the emerging genre. These essays explore the issue of exclusion from society, either because of one's personal actions ("Shunned" - Meredith Hall) the color of one's skin ("Looking at Emmett Till" - John Edgar Wideman), and the state of one's mind ("Three Spheres" - Lauren Slater, "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain" - Floyd Skoot). The environment takes center stage in essays about endangered species and hunting ("Prayer Dogs" - Terry Tempest Williams, "Killing Wolves" - Sherry Simpson), and scientific matters are explored with a personal twist ("Adventures in Celestial Navigation" - Philip Gerard, "Chimera" - Gerald N. Callahan).
Families are typically considered the cornerstone of society, and their dynamics and histories are explored here as well ("An Album Quilt" - John McPhee, "Dinner at Uncle Boris's" - Charles Simic, "Being Brians" - Brian Doyle, "Leaving Babylon: A Walk Through the Jewish Divorce Ceremony" - Judyth Har-Even, "Joe Stopped By" - Andrei Codrescu, "In the Woods" - Leslie Rubinkowski, "Mixed-Blood Stew" - Jewell Parker Rhodes, "Why I Ride" - Jana Richman, "Delivering Lily" - Phillip Lopate).
Showing Gutkind's contention that creative nonfiction is related to journalism, at least in the goal of reportage, social issues often found in the news, and accounts related to former "front-page" material are represented as well ("The Brown Study" - Richard Rodriguez, "Finders Keepers: The Story of Joey Coyle" - Mark Bowden, "Notes from a Difficult Case" - Ruthann Robson, "Sa'm Pèdi" - Madison Smartt Bell, "Going Native" - Francine Prose). Finally, literature, and the writing process are explored ("Language at Play" - Diane Ackerman).
These terse classifications would suffice for general indices of these works, but they each have their own depth beyond the general subjects they explore. James Wolcott's theory (mentioned in Gutkind's Introduction) about the nature of creative nonfiction being too personal is decidedly false; these works offer much more than overly personal prose. Wolcott's declaration that Gutkind is "the Godfather behind creative nonfiction" is perhaps his only accurate comment made on the subject. In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction is an excellent cross-section of both the journal and the genre. It is a necessary volume for any writer, and for any reader who enjoys real stories. |
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in Fact: the Best of Creative Nonfiction |
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This volume is a brilliant collection of extremely well written short stories. The subject matter varies with the author and the selected works are engaging. I enjoy creative non-fiction and find this collection is an excellent example of the genre. It also offers information about the authors and mentions the workshops, colleges and universities they attended. Many of the writers currently teach creative non-fiction writing at university level programs throughout the United States. |
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