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A Basic Definition of Creative Nonfiction

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

Another nugget from the MediaBistro Toolbox, this time a basic explanation of creative nonfiction courtesy of Lee Gutkind.

My favorite part of his statement is this:

“And there are two types of stories. One type is one’s own story. The other type is telling the stories of others.”

Got that? Sometimes it seems to me that some writers believe “creative nonfiction” is synonymous with (and limited to) “memoir.” It isn’t! Back in the day some of us learned about “creative nonfiction” as “literary journalism.” Sure, there are plenty of wonderful memoirs/first-person essays out there, and I certainly enjoy reading them. But please, let’s not forget that there’s more to creative nonfiction than memoir.

Look to hear more about nonfiction (specifically, “narrative nonfiction”) from me in a few days. I’m volunteering at the 2005 Nieman Narrative Conference in Boston. I spent four hours last night preparing folders, and there’s another folder-preparation session in store for me before I get to the actual event on Friday. But it’s all going to be worth it–what a line-up they’ve got….

War Poetry

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

No, I’m not talking about the British World War One poets–this time. That’s a subject I’ve been known to focus on.

Today, however, I suggest you check out Dana Goodyear’s Talk of the Town piece in the current New Yorker. Goodyear profiles Brian Turner, 38, a former Army sergeant whose book of poems, Here, Bullet, was recently released by Alice James Books. The book, about a year Turner spent deployed in Iraq, won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award. It’s Turner’s debut collection.

Scott McLemee’s "Quarterly Report"

by Erika Dreifus on
Disabled

You may not yet know about Scott McLemee’s “Intellectual Affairs” column, which runs twice each week over at the Inside Higher Ed site. On Thursdays McLemee covers new books; on Tuesdays he offers, as he recently phrased it: “the usual smorgasbord: thumbnail accounts of scholarship, glosses on current events, interviews with academics and writers, personal essays, reading notes, and the occasional targeted spitball.”

Last week the column addressed “general-interest cultural quarterlies.” Practicing writers who target these journals will be especially interested in what McLemee has to say about The Virginia Quarterly Review, Sewanee Review, The Minnesota Review, Boston Review, and others.

Who Cares If It’s Spelled Right? I Do!

by Erika Dreifus on
2

On more than one occasion my students (and, frankly, my own colleagues and classmates) have seemed to find me too “rigid” on issues of grammar, punctuation, and spelling. But I can’t help it. I think these issues matter. I think they’re especially important for writers.

We all make mistakes. We all suffer from typos and faulty proofreading now and then. That’s not the problem. The problem is a blanket informality and indifference to the “rules” and the criticism leveled against those who try to preserve high standards rather than those for whom “standards” seems to be a dirty word. So I found myself nodding in agreement today as I read Johnny Gunn’s online article, “Who Cares If It’s Spelled Right?”

Give it a read and see what you think.