Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writer's Guide and Anthology

by Sean Prentiss, Jessica Hendry Nelson

Overview

Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers' Guide and Anthology offers expert instruction on writing creative nonfiction in any form-including memoir, lyric essay, travel writing, and more-while taking an expansive approach to fit a rapidly evolving literary art form. From a history of creative nonfiction, related ethical concerns, and new approaches to revision and publishing, this book offers innovative strategies and ideas beyond what's traditionally covered.

Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers' Guide and Anthology also includes:

· An anthology of contemporary creative nonfiction by some of today's most inventive and celebrated writers
· Advanced explorations into the craft of creative nonfiction across forms
· In-depth discussion of truth, ethics, and memory
· Practical advice on revision, editing, research, and publishing
· Writing prompts and exercises throughout the textbook

A companion website is also available for the book at http://www.bloomsburyonlineresources.com/advanced-creative-nonfiction

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350067820
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	07/29/2021
Series:	Bloomsbury Writer's Guides and Anthologies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Sean Prentiss is Associate Professor of English at Norwich University, USA. He is author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave (2015), which won the National Outdoor Book Award for Biography/History. He is also author of Crosscut: Poems (2020), and co-editor of The Science of Story: The Brain Behind Creative Nonfiction (Bloomsbury, 2020).

Jessica Hendry Nelson is the author of the memoir If Only You People Could Follow Directions (2014) which was selected as a best debut book by the Indies Introduce New Voices program, the Indies Next List by the American Booksellers' Association, and named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA and teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA.
Sean Prentiss is Associate Professor of English at Norwich University, USA. He is author of Finding Abbey: The Search for Edward Abbey and His Hidden Desert Grave (2015), which won the National Outdoor Book Award for Biography/History. He is also co-editor of The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre (2014).
Jessica Hendry Nelson is the author of the memoir If Only You People Could Follow Directions (2014) which was selected as a best debut book by the Indies Introduce New Voices program, the Indies Next List by the American Booksellers' Association, and named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Review. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, USA and teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Nebraska, USA in Omaha.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part 1: Foundations
1. The History of Creative Nonfiction
2. Veracity and Genre
3. Forms and Modes of Creative Nonfiction
4. Interplay of Genres, Forms, and Modes
5. Elements of Creative Nonfiction
Part 2: Evolutions
6. The Central Question
7. Image and Metaphor
8. Exploding Scene
9. Chronology
10. Dialectical Movement
11. Setting As Character
12. Writer, Narrator, Character
13. Lenses
14. Reflection, Introspection, and Speculation
15. Beginnings and Endings
16. Music of Prose
Part 3: Integrities
17. Truth, Fact, and Memory
18. Authority and Credibility
Part 4: Renovations
19. Workshops, Peer Reviews, and Writing Groups
20. Revision
21. Publishing
Part 5: Anthology
1. Austin Bunn, “Basement Story”
2. Amy Butcher, “Women These Days”
3. Seo-Young Chu, “A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major”
4. Melissa Febos, “Leave Marks”
5. Kathy Fish, “Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild”
6. Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, “Open Season”
7. Ross Gay, “Loitering”
8. Och Gonzalez, “What I Do on My Terrace is None of Your Business”
9. Peter Grandbois, “Loyalty”
10. Major Jackson, “Mighty Pawns”
11. Sarah Minor, “A Log Cabin Square”
12. Jessica Hendry Nelson, “When You Were a Boy in Maine”
13. Sean Prentiss, “Buying a House”
14. Jonathan Rovner, “The Funambulists”
15. Vijay Seshadri, “Memoir”
16. Vivek Shraya, “Trisha”
17. Margot Singer, “Call it Rape”
18. Ira Sukrungruang, “Invisible Partners”
19. Jill Talbot, “The Professor of Longing”
20. Abigail Thomas, “Nostalgia”
21. Ryan Van Meter, “First”
22. Elissa Washuta, “Incompressible Flow”
23. Christian Wiman, “The Limit”
24. Brooke Juliet Wonders, “Self Erasure”
25. Xu Xi, “Godspeed”
26. Kristen Millares Young, “A Few Thoughts While Shaving”
Index

Editorial Reviews

I've searched long and hard for a creative nonfiction text that not only reflects the traditions of nonfiction but likewise its myriad and protean forms. At last, I have it in this smart and clear-headed look at a genre that prizes uncertainty and seeking. Prentiss and Nelson undo traditional and unhelpful definitions of the forms and argue for a more malleable approach, eschewing the narrow rut of truth versus fiction. The vignettes that introduce each chapter are themselves lovely reflections that marry form and experience by these two talented writers. The choices for the anthology reflect the breadth, diversity, and brilliance of many of the most inventive and exciting writers of creative nonfiction today. And as guides, Nelson and Prentiss prove themselves to be the most trustworthy of pathfinders through a heretofore confusing landscape in a practice that is still trying to define itself. I expect this will be my teaching text of choice for years to come.” —Robin Hemley, Author of Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood, Founder of NonfictioNOW and Co-editor and founder, Speculative Nonfiction

From the Publisher