Author Description

Whether writers, readers or scholars, the individuals who read this book will gain much from it. A unique, special genre, creative nonfiction offers its readers a wealth of treasures. It provides the writer's singular voice as an active participant in his or her own experience. It may offer the writer's attempt to establish or define an identity, to explore and chronicle personal discoveries and changes, to examine personal conflicts, to interrogate his or her own opinion, and to connect him or herself to a larger heritage and community. It can be lyrical, expository, meditative, informational, reflective, self-interrogative, exploratory, analytical, or whimsical. But whatever form and meaning it takes, the creative nonfiction in this book provides its readers with the pleasure of reading great tales and dramas and with the learning experience of understanding the process through which to write these literary achievements. An anthology of work by major figures in creative nonfiction, this book offers the most thorough introduction to this cutting-edge genre. Its approach is both literary and writerly, focusing on the form and acknowledging the literary impulse in nonfiction as a fourth genre equivalent in scope to the three genres of poetry, fiction, and drama. Part I compiles an anthology of contemporary essays, memoirs, literary journalism, and personal cultural criticism. Part II presents articles discussing the forms and issues surrounding the fourth genre. Part II pairs essays and memoirs with articles by their authors explaining their composing process when they wrote the essays. Included are contributions by Scott Russell Sanders, Richard Selzer, Anne Dillard, Mary Clearman Blew, Tracy Kidder, Donald Murray, and other noted writers. Writers, readers, scholars and teachers.