The Science of Story: The Brain Behind Creative Nonfiction

by Sean Prentiss, Nicole Walker

Overview

Bringing together a diverse range of writers, The Science of Story is the first book to ask the question: what can contemporary brain science teach us about the art and craft of creative nonfiction writing? Drawing on the latest developments in cognitive neuroscience the book sheds new light on some of the most important elements of the writer's craft, from perspective and truth to emotion and metaphor.

The Science of Story explores such questions as:

· Why do humans tell stories?
· How do we remember and misremember our lives - and what does this mean for storytelling?
· What is the value of writing about trauma?
· How do stories make us laugh, or cry, make us angry or triumphant?

Contributors: Nancer Ballard, Mike Branch, Frank Bures, J.T. Bushnell, Katharine Coles, Christopher Cokinos, Alison Hawthorne Deming, David Lazar, Lawrence Lenhart, Alan Lightman, Dave Madden, Jessica Hendry Nelson, Richard Powers, Sean Prentiss, Julie Wittes Schlack, Valerie Sweeney Prince, Ira Sukrungruang, Nicole Walker, Wendy S. Walters, Marco Wilkinson, Amy Wright.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350084247
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/09/2020
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.57(h) x 0.56(d)

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 co-editor of The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre (2014) and co-author (with Joe Wilkins) of Environmental and Nature Writing: A Writer's Guide and Anthology (Bloomsbury, 2017).

Nicole Walker is the author of the collections The After-Normal: Brief, Alphabetical Essays on a Changing Planet from Rose Metal Press and Sustainability: A Love Story from Mad Creek Books. Her previous books include Where the Tiny Things Are, Egg, Micrograms, Quench Your Thirst with Salt, and This Noisy Egg. She edited for Bloomsbury the essay collections Science of Story with Sean Prentiss and with Margot Singer, Bending Genre: Essays on Creative Nonfiction. She's nonfiction editor at Diagram and teaches at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction Sean Prentiss Nicole Walker 1

2 Bengal Tiger Moments: Perception of Time in the Brain and on the Page Sean Prentiss 5

3 Sipping from the Transmitter: Theorizing the "Potential Essay" Lawrence Lenhart 23

4 The Brain Is a Master Class Dave Madden 37

5 Brain on Fire Nicole Walker 45

6 The Brain Split in Half Ira Sukrungruang 57

7 When the Body Reads: Writing Sensory Perception for Reader Embodiment Nancer Ballard 69

8 LENS: A Lyric Meditation Katharine Coles 91

9 The Heart and the Eye: How Description Can Access Emotion J.T. Bushnell 99

10 The Memory Agent David Lazar 109

11 On Metaphor V. Efua Prince 127

12 The Glittering World of Synapses Lyncia Begay 141

13 A Sense of Oneness with Sun and Stone Leila Philip 149

14 A Gardener's Education (Animal Body) Marco Wilkinson 161

15 The Secret Lives of Stories: Rewriting Our Personal Narratives Frank Bures 177

16 Conversation in Intensive Care Amy Wright 187

17 Mindfulness and Memoir Julie Wittes Schlack 199

Notes 219

List of Contributors 227

Acknowledgments 233

Bibliography 234

Index 238

Editorial Reviews

This book offers intriguing takes on the question of how our unknowable brains reckon with experience and lead us to the artistic practice of creative nonfiction. Cognitive science, neuroaesthetics, mirror neurons, memory and metaphor all come out to play with these inquiring minds. This is not an instruction manual, but rather a series of brilliant provocations to expand the field of our writing lives.” —Alison Hawthorne Deming, Author of Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit

“The Science of Story makes a great case for the essay as premier scientific instrument. Each contribution in this anthology illuminates a new intersection between writing and science. How does time or space work in memory or on the page? How do description and emotion affect us? How do memory or metaphor work to produce the magic they do? How do the essays we love affect us emotionally? And more importantly, how can writers use or repurpose these tools to make more interesting and beautiful things? This book will be revelatory for writers of nonfiction and their many readers.” —Ander Monson, Professor of English, University of Arizona, USA

From the Publisher