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Creative Nonfiction #24/25
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction
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 in this new turf, all originally published in the groundbreaking journal he founded, Creative Nonfiction, now in its tenth anniversary year.
Many of the writers here are crossing genres—from poetry to fiction to nonfiction. Annie Dillard provides the introduction, while Gutkind discusses the creative and ethical parameters of this new genre. The selections themselves are broad and fascinating. 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 contemplates raucous gatherings at his Uncle Boris's apartment, while John McPhee creates a rare, personal, album quilt of his own life. Terry Tempest Williams speaks on the decline of the prairie dog, and Madison Smartt Bell invades Haiti.
Many of the writers here are crossing genres—from poetry to fiction to nonfiction. Annie Dillard provides the introduction, while Gutkind discusses the creative and ethical parameters of this new genre. The selections themselves are broad and fascinating. 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 contemplates raucous gatherings at his Uncle Boris's apartment, while John McPhee creates a rare, personal, album quilt of his own life. Terry Tempest Williams speaks on the decline of the prairie dog, and Madison Smartt Bell invades Haiti.
480 pages, Paperback
First published November 17, 2004
56 people are currently reading
1278 people want to read
About the author
Lee Gutkind
105 books99 followersLee Gutkind has been recognized by Vanity Fair as “the godfather behind creative nonfiction.” A prolific writer, he has authored and edited over twenty-five books, and is the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction, the first and largest literary magazine to publish only narrative nonfiction. Gutkind has received grants, honors, and awards from numerous organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Science Foundation. A man of many talents, Gutkind has been a motorcyclist, medical insider, sports expert, sailor, and college professor. He is currently distinguished writer in residence in the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes at Arizona State University and a professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
May 21, 2017
After recently reading In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction, I checked the the library on the campus where I work to see what other collections of creative nonfiction they had.. In Short was fine, but the essays were "brief creative nonfiction", and I wanted to find something that had more complete and full essays. This was the first to pop up.
I have read some reviews by people who clearly don't understand what this is. So let me, briefly, explain it to others so if you pick this up you don't make the same embarrassing pronouncements that other reviewers have. The title, In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, refers to the literary magazine founded by Lee Gutkind, the editor of this collection. The name of the magazine is Creative Nonfiction. The "Best" in the subtitle indicates that this collection comprises the best submissions the magazine has received.
This is not a book claiming that these are the BEST creative nonfiction essays OF ALL TIME.
For crying out loud, people.
It's silly to complain that this collection has no cohesion, no main theme, or whatever else people are saying. These are the best submissions the magazine has received over the years, so there's a wide variety of writing. They're not all memoir, though most of them have components of memoir. This does not mean the collection lacks depth or diversity. The essays are all vastly different in style, tone, and theme.
As in any collection, some essays will be better than others. There are a lot of familiar names to many readers in this collection (John Edgar Wideman, John McPhee, Charles Simic, Ntozake Shange, Diane Ackerman, Andrei Codrescu, and Francine Prose to name a few), and others are new to me because I am always learning: Lauren Slater, Ruthann Robson, Floyd Skloot, Jewell Parker Rhodes, or Jana Richman.
I read this over the course of about nine days, primarily on the bus to and from work. Most of the essays are short enough to read in one or two sittings, and others are short enough to read over a lunch break. There's a brief biography at the beginning of each essay so the reader learns a little something about each one before really delving in. At the end of each essay, though, is where the real magic happens. That's where the author would write a few paragraphs or a few pages (in some cases) about the impetus for the writing of the essay the reader just read, and a little blurby-blurb with advice for writers.
I love shit like that. Give me the advice, all of the advice. Tell me what you've gone through, tell me which pitfalls I will undoubtedly experience, tell me not to quit my day job. I love it all, bring it on.
This is a great collection overall. I won't go through and count the number of essays I enjoyed or didn't enjoy to come up with some sort of mathematical average. I'm going with my heart on this one.
If you're also interested in reading or writing creative nonfiction, this is a good place to start. You can read a variety of authors (from a variety of backgrounds and experiences) share their stories, you can study their craft, and you can just soak up their advice on writing.
Also, the introduction by Annie Dillard is spot-on. She's the reason I decided to apply to an MFA with a concentration in creative nonfiction. If I don't get accepted, it won't be Annie's fault. She's just a bad-ass that we should all aspire to be.
I have read some reviews by people who clearly don't understand what this is. So let me, briefly, explain it to others so if you pick this up you don't make the same embarrassing pronouncements that other reviewers have. The title, In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, refers to the literary magazine founded by Lee Gutkind, the editor of this collection. The name of the magazine is Creative Nonfiction. The "Best" in the subtitle indicates that this collection comprises the best submissions the magazine has received.
This is not a book claiming that these are the BEST creative nonfiction essays OF ALL TIME.
For crying out loud, people.
It's silly to complain that this collection has no cohesion, no main theme, or whatever else people are saying. These are the best submissions the magazine has received over the years, so there's a wide variety of writing. They're not all memoir, though most of them have components of memoir. This does not mean the collection lacks depth or diversity. The essays are all vastly different in style, tone, and theme.
As in any collection, some essays will be better than others. There are a lot of familiar names to many readers in this collection (John Edgar Wideman, John McPhee, Charles Simic, Ntozake Shange, Diane Ackerman, Andrei Codrescu, and Francine Prose to name a few), and others are new to me because I am always learning: Lauren Slater, Ruthann Robson, Floyd Skloot, Jewell Parker Rhodes, or Jana Richman.
I read this over the course of about nine days, primarily on the bus to and from work. Most of the essays are short enough to read in one or two sittings, and others are short enough to read over a lunch break. There's a brief biography at the beginning of each essay so the reader learns a little something about each one before really delving in. At the end of each essay, though, is where the real magic happens. That's where the author would write a few paragraphs or a few pages (in some cases) about the impetus for the writing of the essay the reader just read, and a little blurby-blurb with advice for writers.
I love shit like that. Give me the advice, all of the advice. Tell me what you've gone through, tell me which pitfalls I will undoubtedly experience, tell me not to quit my day job. I love it all, bring it on.
This is a great collection overall. I won't go through and count the number of essays I enjoyed or didn't enjoy to come up with some sort of mathematical average. I'm going with my heart on this one.
If you're also interested in reading or writing creative nonfiction, this is a good place to start. You can read a variety of authors (from a variety of backgrounds and experiences) share their stories, you can study their craft, and you can just soak up their advice on writing.
Also, the introduction by Annie Dillard is spot-on. She's the reason I decided to apply to an MFA with a concentration in creative nonfiction. If I don't get accepted, it won't be Annie's fault. She's just a bad-ass that we should all aspire to be.
July 28, 2007
First, note that the title is a bit misleading. It is not an attempt to be the best of creative nonfiction as a genre, but of the literary journal "Creative Nonfiction." That said, this is a wonderful collection of essays ranging from the highly personal to the journalistic. Of the pieces in the book, I learn toward the more personal selections (" Leaving Babylon," "Shunned," "Three Spheres") and those that most effectively bridge the personal/journalistic gap ("Emmit Till"). Though the essays listed above are my favorites, "Leaving Babylon" and "Shunned" are particuarly heartbreaking, every piece in the collection is engaging and well written.
As an added bonus, this collection is clear in its audience (the young non-fiction writer) and each essay ends with the author (in most cases) talking about the how and why of their piece and some advice to young writers. These themes are echoed from the introduction by Annie Dillard ("Advice to Young Writers") and Lee Guntkind ("Creative NonFiction Police").
An excellently edited and written collection that would be a valuable addition to a beginning writer's collection.
As an added bonus, this collection is clear in its audience (the young non-fiction writer) and each essay ends with the author (in most cases) talking about the how and why of their piece and some advice to young writers. These themes are echoed from the introduction by Annie Dillard ("Advice to Young Writers") and Lee Guntkind ("Creative NonFiction Police").
An excellently edited and written collection that would be a valuable addition to a beginning writer's collection.
September 15, 2022
This collection suffers from what I like to call Collectionitis, meaning that, as a collection, it suffers an identity crisis and an obscene, tiring variation in quality of the contents.
This book doesn't know what it wants to be- and even more troubling, doesn't know what it wants to present its subject (creative nonfiction) as. Some entries are memoirs, others bland and forgettable essays, some trite examples of biography, and the requisite entries that I actually found myself enjoying. Seriously, though- a book of essays does not a collection of creative nonfiction make. The operative word here is CREATIVE, so the entries that were bland and lacking in their own emotional spin were usually the ones I found exasperating.
My favorites in the collection were Three Spheres, Shunned, Dinner at Uncle Boris's, killing wolves, Language at Play, and Delivering Lily, and it's worth mentioning that the introduction by Annie Dillard far surpasses the foreword by Lee Gutkind, which you're better off skipping.
Most of the stories were so-so, but there were a few that I couldn't stand (What Is It We Really Harvestin' Here, The Brown Study, Prayer Dogs, and Gray Area: Thinking with a Danaged Brain), some of which I couldn't muster up a modicum of interest to finish.
Another thing that I believe threw me out of the book is that the best story by far is the first one- Three Soheres- and raised my expectations, which quickly dropped through a decent first half, a few forgettable entries I was competent apathetic towards, and the plummeted during the completely bland second half. Basically, just skip this collection.
This book doesn't know what it wants to be- and even more troubling, doesn't know what it wants to present its subject (creative nonfiction) as. Some entries are memoirs, others bland and forgettable essays, some trite examples of biography, and the requisite entries that I actually found myself enjoying. Seriously, though- a book of essays does not a collection of creative nonfiction make. The operative word here is CREATIVE, so the entries that were bland and lacking in their own emotional spin were usually the ones I found exasperating.
My favorites in the collection were Three Spheres, Shunned, Dinner at Uncle Boris's, killing wolves, Language at Play, and Delivering Lily, and it's worth mentioning that the introduction by Annie Dillard far surpasses the foreword by Lee Gutkind, which you're better off skipping.
Most of the stories were so-so, but there were a few that I couldn't stand (What Is It We Really Harvestin' Here, The Brown Study, Prayer Dogs, and Gray Area: Thinking with a Danaged Brain), some of which I couldn't muster up a modicum of interest to finish.
Another thing that I believe threw me out of the book is that the best story by far is the first one- Three Soheres- and raised my expectations, which quickly dropped through a decent first half, a few forgettable entries I was competent apathetic towards, and the plummeted during the completely bland second half. Basically, just skip this collection.
February 28, 2024
Not quite as good as last summer’s Norton Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction, but In Fact was nevertheless a good read. In fact, In Fact has proven to be one of my favorite reads of the summer. How can you not like well-written essays about the true world? Written creatively, of course.
August 21, 2016
Excellent book! Great creative nonfiction short stories. I am now reading Gutkind's book "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" and it is very useful for me because I am writing creative nonfiction.
April 27, 2014
Most people that know me understand that i have an obsession with the essay writing of Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson. I read nonfiction because i crave information but suffer when it is presented in a dry manner. From this collection I learned that the Orthodox Jews have a prayer, "Thank God I am not a woman". I had the opportunity to revisit race and the miscegenation of all people. I now know a little more about the resiliency of women as seen through the eyes of a woman of Mormon Heritage. I have the feeling that mothers teach their daughters more than they teach their sons and feel gipped about what i may have missed in childhood. While not as colorful as Wolfe or as bombast as Thompson, this collection is worthy of a reader's attention.
May 21, 2014
A few gems in here, and great writing throughout, but as with all collections, some are gonna be more your bag than others. What makes this book a treat are the mini-essays at the end of each main essay, explaining a bit more about the impetus for writing the piece, along with some background of the writer's life. They feel a little like interviews where only the answers got published, maybe because each one features some piece of writerly advice to the novice writer.
February 11, 2009
I loved this collection of Creative Non-Fiction. I learned a lot, I laughed, I cried. I really appreciated how every author gave some little piece about their essay at the end, usually with some writing advice. If you get a chance to read it, Chimera is a must. I forget the guy that wrote it, but it's too good.
May 22, 2023
The introduction (to young writers, by Annie Dillard) is excellent, pithy advice. The first essay (Creative Nonfiction Police? by Lee Gutkind, who edited and probably chose the published essays here) is ok. To me, the rest of the book -- well, the dozen or so essays I sampled -- are way, way too self-absorbed.
Gutkind's piece discusses how creative nonfiction writers may share their own personal story while writing about other issues. He criticizes James Wolcott for "attacking" creative nonfiction as "confessional writing" -- Wolcott called the writers "navel-gazers" and said, "No personal detail is too mundane to share." I have read a lot of creative nonfiction that is excellent and shares the author's perspective in a way that enhances the story.
The essays included here, though, seem to me exactly what Wolcott describes, and the stories become tedious to the extent they focus on the author. (This is true even if what the author describes is something I can relate to.) It is very difficult to write about yourself in a way that isn't self-indulgent, which alienates the reader. Some of the essays really belong in the "memoir" category rather than creative nonfiction. It is hard to understand how they were thought of as the "best" of the latter category.
Annie Dillard is a writer who can talk about herself in a way that enhances the story. Read her introduction (without it, this book would've gotten 1 star), then read other books she's written instead of the rest of this one.
Gutkind's piece discusses how creative nonfiction writers may share their own personal story while writing about other issues. He criticizes James Wolcott for "attacking" creative nonfiction as "confessional writing" -- Wolcott called the writers "navel-gazers" and said, "No personal detail is too mundane to share." I have read a lot of creative nonfiction that is excellent and shares the author's perspective in a way that enhances the story.
The essays included here, though, seem to me exactly what Wolcott describes, and the stories become tedious to the extent they focus on the author. (This is true even if what the author describes is something I can relate to.) It is very difficult to write about yourself in a way that isn't self-indulgent, which alienates the reader. Some of the essays really belong in the "memoir" category rather than creative nonfiction. It is hard to understand how they were thought of as the "best" of the latter category.
Annie Dillard is a writer who can talk about herself in a way that enhances the story. Read her introduction (without it, this book would've gotten 1 star), then read other books she's written instead of the rest of this one.
February 15, 2024
A collection of essays we might more commonly describe as personal essays or narrative journalism, the editor of this now older text makes a large (and oft-repeated point) that "creative nonfiction" is not widely accepted and that therefore what is done here is vital to writing.
Okay. We can ignore that Montaigne (originator of the essay form) and hundreds after him wrote such essays, and we can ignore that so much journalism today (well, since the 1990s, I think) recognizes openly the role of the journalist's framing of a story and so actively incorporates themselves into the telling of the story. Be my guest. But did you have to demand that every one of your contributing writers parrot their concerns about "creative nonfiction," as well?
So, despite recognizing the important work Gutkind has done in his teaching and publishing, his heavy-handed work in editing here was off-putting.
Nevertheless, the book remains a potent collection of essays from some very fine writers (think Diane Ackerman and Ntozake Shange, Francine Prose and John McPhee, etc.), and no reader will leave this read unenlightened on any number of topics, from bigoted fathers and Emmet Till's legacy to brain-damaged narration and early navigation techniques, from the links between culture and food to metaphors and from Jewish divorce rituals to hunting wolves. I was not bored by a single essay, and each made for both a relaxing and compelling exploration.
Okay. We can ignore that Montaigne (originator of the essay form) and hundreds after him wrote such essays, and we can ignore that so much journalism today (well, since the 1990s, I think) recognizes openly the role of the journalist's framing of a story and so actively incorporates themselves into the telling of the story. Be my guest. But did you have to demand that every one of your contributing writers parrot their concerns about "creative nonfiction," as well?
So, despite recognizing the important work Gutkind has done in his teaching and publishing, his heavy-handed work in editing here was off-putting.
Nevertheless, the book remains a potent collection of essays from some very fine writers (think Diane Ackerman and Ntozake Shange, Francine Prose and John McPhee, etc.), and no reader will leave this read unenlightened on any number of topics, from bigoted fathers and Emmet Till's legacy to brain-damaged narration and early navigation techniques, from the links between culture and food to metaphors and from Jewish divorce rituals to hunting wolves. I was not bored by a single essay, and each made for both a relaxing and compelling exploration.
October 1, 2018
I love Gutkind's edited collections. The essays in this one crackle with reality beautifully put. There's something about this genre that irks people, I think, judging by the number of editorial justifications for its existence (by both the editor and in short explanatory notes provided at the end of each essay, often by the author). No need. It takes great skill to render nonfiction as narrative in the way these authors do; they lay themselves bare and they do it with great poetry and honesty. Some of my favourites looked at the immune system as a vehicle for memory, a psychologist's experience returning to an institution where she used to be a patient, a teenager shunned when she becomes pregnant and then forced to give up her child, an animal-lover among wolf trappers...and really, most of the entire contents. It's a genre that puts people out there in the world, then harnesses those experiences to create insightful stories that are a great pleasure to read. Highly recommended.
December 29, 2018
In the last decade or so, creative nonfiction has emerged as a popular genre, with readers becoming more and more interested in personal stories that are just as well-crafted as their favorite novels. This collection represents a body of work that is masterful, inspiring, and a powerful representation of what essays can achieve when they're done right. Some standouts include "Delivering Lily" by Phillip Lopate, which is an unflinching look at the birth of his daughter; "In The Woods", Leslie Rubinkowski's exploration of truth as it relates to family ties and family history; and "Notes from a Difficult Case", in which Ruthann Robson makes legal matters extremely personal. As a writer who works best in essay form, this collection serves as a North Star - one I'll visit again and again to get inspired by and aspire to.
November 30, 2018
Great collection. There was one essay that I just couldn't read, just the style of writing I guess, was tedious. To me. What I like about good creative nonfiction is that it shouldn't matter what it's about, it draws you in. But it does have to be well written. I especially liked the Williams and the Simic.
October 15, 2021
2$ op shop find!!! great to dip into & some banging essays. very varied, went in biased against the kitsch 'and then i knew i could fly like a beautiful bee' of creative non-fiction but it was such a high calibre that it (mostly) managed those moments quite tastefully. i really appreciated also the reflections on the pieces & writing advice from the authors after each essay.
June 24, 2017
Some of the short stories definitely resonated with me more, but they were all beautifully written and deeply interesting. I keep this book in my locker at work so I can force it into the hands of as many people as possible.
May 4, 2020
This is an excellent collection of creative nonfiction. The book starts out with some heavy content, so I would recommend jumping around a little bit. They don't need to be read in order. I think this might be my new favorite genre.
August 7, 2021
I found this book helpful in grasping the genre of creative non-fiction. This is still a genre that illudes me a bit. I love reading it, but struggle when it comes to writing in the genre. A good reference.
June 25, 2019
Great read for an aspiring creative nonfiction writer. I have half of the book highlighted.
Read
January 7, 2020I read "Shunned" by Meredith Hall.
October 27, 2020
A little uneven, but generally some pretty good reading.
October 11, 2022
Great collection! The introduction by Annie Dillard is superb.
January 26, 2025
If you look up the editor then you can guess the essays chosen. Also, I guess I don’t like this type of non-fiction writing style…if you like Didion you may enjoy this.
July 4, 2025
HOLY FUCK
Read
December 3, 2025shout out to advanced writing seminar - in the words of nick, "this class was supposed to be easy?"
September 19, 2011
What a feast! Quotes and snippets from the essays:
Creative nonfiction is "what we call the literature of reality..." (Lee Gutkind)
No laws govern the scope of good taste and personal integrity. (Gutkind)
Lauren Slater, speaking as a psychotherapist: "... I'm supposedly in a profession that values honesty and self-revelation."
Loneliness is an old story which belongs to all of us. (Meredith Hall)
John McPhee quoting an elderly woman's description of a teacher in her diary: "... a square prunes-and-prisms lady with a mouth like a buttonhole."
McPhee, on looking for a certain book in an open-stacks library: "The book you knew about has led you to others you did not know about. To the ceiling the shelves are loaded with books about Nevada [his subject of research at the time]. You pull them down, one at at time, and sit on the floor and look them over until you are sitting on a pile five feet high ..." (and have several more high piles hemming you in ... Bliss!)
McPhee: "It has been alleged [by his mother] that when I was in college she heard that I had stayed up all night playing poker and [she] wrote me a letter that used the word 'shame' forty-two times. I do not recall this."
Charles Simic, describing one of his uncles at a family dinner: "My Uncle Boris would make Mother Teresa reach for a baseball bat." On his brother and father, also at the dinner, who tell Charles (the family rationalist) that his attempts at logical argument don't measure up: "... my brother interrupts to tell me that I'm full of shit. His philosophy is: The more reasonable it sounds, the less likely it is that it's true. My father, on the other hand, always takes the Olympian view. 'None of you know what the fuck you're talking about,' he informs us, and resumes slurping his soup."
Richard Rodriguez, on the air in L.A.: "... on many days, the air turns fuscous from the scent glands of planes and from Lexus musk."
"A trapper tells me, 'Fur is organic. It doesn't ruin one thing in the woods to use it.' Except the animal itself, of course." (Sherry Simpson)
Judyth Har-Even, on her Orthodox Jewish divorce: "Whereas God was present in my wedding ceremony, He is absent from the divorce proceedings. His name is neither mentioned nor invoked. I imagine Him off in a corner, sulking, and for good reason. What, after all, has God been doing every day since the creation of the world? According to the Babylonian Talmud, He has been running a dating service, matchmaking, a task more difficult, the sages claim, than splitting the waters during the Exodus."
Leslie Rubinkowski describes her teenaged self as having "a head full of adolescent disco misery ..."
Rubinowski, on her beloved grandfather: "In his mind he was the guy who rescued naked women in the woods, resourceful and dashing even without teeth, a coal-patch Cary Grant."
Floyd Skloot's essay, "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain", is a smart, compassionate gem for anyone who's experienced an injury or illness of the brain. His first line is, "I used to be able to think." What a paradox! -- or so it seems. The rest of piece tells in intricate detail of what "I used to be able think" means to the author. Even so, he's a world-class author of essays, fiction, and poetry. I salute him.
Other essayists include Annie Dillard, John Edgar Wideman, Philip Lopate, Francine Prose and Terry Tempest Williams ... and there are two more books in the series! :-)
Creative nonfiction is "what we call the literature of reality..." (Lee Gutkind)
No laws govern the scope of good taste and personal integrity. (Gutkind)
Lauren Slater, speaking as a psychotherapist: "... I'm supposedly in a profession that values honesty and self-revelation."
Loneliness is an old story which belongs to all of us. (Meredith Hall)
John McPhee quoting an elderly woman's description of a teacher in her diary: "... a square prunes-and-prisms lady with a mouth like a buttonhole."
McPhee, on looking for a certain book in an open-stacks library: "The book you knew about has led you to others you did not know about. To the ceiling the shelves are loaded with books about Nevada [his subject of research at the time]. You pull them down, one at at time, and sit on the floor and look them over until you are sitting on a pile five feet high ..." (and have several more high piles hemming you in ... Bliss!)
McPhee: "It has been alleged [by his mother] that when I was in college she heard that I had stayed up all night playing poker and [she] wrote me a letter that used the word 'shame' forty-two times. I do not recall this."
Charles Simic, describing one of his uncles at a family dinner: "My Uncle Boris would make Mother Teresa reach for a baseball bat." On his brother and father, also at the dinner, who tell Charles (the family rationalist) that his attempts at logical argument don't measure up: "... my brother interrupts to tell me that I'm full of shit. His philosophy is: The more reasonable it sounds, the less likely it is that it's true. My father, on the other hand, always takes the Olympian view. 'None of you know what the fuck you're talking about,' he informs us, and resumes slurping his soup."
Richard Rodriguez, on the air in L.A.: "... on many days, the air turns fuscous from the scent glands of planes and from Lexus musk."
"A trapper tells me, 'Fur is organic. It doesn't ruin one thing in the woods to use it.' Except the animal itself, of course." (Sherry Simpson)
Judyth Har-Even, on her Orthodox Jewish divorce: "Whereas God was present in my wedding ceremony, He is absent from the divorce proceedings. His name is neither mentioned nor invoked. I imagine Him off in a corner, sulking, and for good reason. What, after all, has God been doing every day since the creation of the world? According to the Babylonian Talmud, He has been running a dating service, matchmaking, a task more difficult, the sages claim, than splitting the waters during the Exodus."
Leslie Rubinkowski describes her teenaged self as having "a head full of adolescent disco misery ..."
Rubinowski, on her beloved grandfather: "In his mind he was the guy who rescued naked women in the woods, resourceful and dashing even without teeth, a coal-patch Cary Grant."
Floyd Skloot's essay, "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain", is a smart, compassionate gem for anyone who's experienced an injury or illness of the brain. His first line is, "I used to be able to think." What a paradox! -- or so it seems. The rest of piece tells in intricate detail of what "I used to be able think" means to the author. Even so, he's a world-class author of essays, fiction, and poetry. I salute him.
Other essayists include Annie Dillard, John Edgar Wideman, Philip Lopate, Francine Prose and Terry Tempest Williams ... and there are two more books in the series! :-)
September 7, 2011
For a school book, this was really good. I must admit I was not looking forward to reading it after hearing some unfavorable reviews, but I found it fairly easy to read and most of the essays were enjoyable.
This is a collection of essays and excerpts from books written in the "creative nonfiction" genre. The entire collection features reflections and suggestions about the genre; the introduction explains how the genre is a very popular crossover between fact and fiction. Like storytelling or memoirs, authors write about their own lives or the lives of others in a way that is true yet reads like a novel. Yet it is clear that this is only one truth, because it is purposefully personal and not objective. I realized that this is the genre into which The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks falls, and it gives me the words I've been searching for since I read it.
So, being an anthology, some pieces are better than others. There are some that are very personal and serious memoirs, yet completely compelling and captured my attention ("Three Spheres," "Shunned," and "Notes from a Difficult Case," for example). There are a few that lacked a distinct story line, yet were fascinating and interesting reflections ("Being Brians" was one of my favorite, being humorous; "Chimera" and "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain" were more serious ones). Then there were those that I didn't enjoy, either because they were too long ("Sa'm Pedi"), un-relatable ("Looking at Emmett Till"), or just a confusing, rambling jumble ("An Album Quilt"). (Sorry.) At the end of each story, the author reflects on writing his or her essay and gives advice for budding writers. I liked reading all of these conclusions, because it really gave life to the essay, letting me inside the writer's head as they described their struggles. Most ended up adding material to their essays by accident, but found that it became the piece's defining trait; some went through the ordeal of reliving painful experiences. This helped me connect the writing to a living human being, rather than having the author be some abstract being whose words I labor to interpret. It's creative nonfiction; it's real.
In conclusion, future seniors should not be afraid of this book.
This is a collection of essays and excerpts from books written in the "creative nonfiction" genre. The entire collection features reflections and suggestions about the genre; the introduction explains how the genre is a very popular crossover between fact and fiction. Like storytelling or memoirs, authors write about their own lives or the lives of others in a way that is true yet reads like a novel. Yet it is clear that this is only one truth, because it is purposefully personal and not objective. I realized that this is the genre into which The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks falls, and it gives me the words I've been searching for since I read it.
So, being an anthology, some pieces are better than others. There are some that are very personal and serious memoirs, yet completely compelling and captured my attention ("Three Spheres," "Shunned," and "Notes from a Difficult Case," for example). There are a few that lacked a distinct story line, yet were fascinating and interesting reflections ("Being Brians" was one of my favorite, being humorous; "Chimera" and "Gray Area: Thinking with a Damaged Brain" were more serious ones). Then there were those that I didn't enjoy, either because they were too long ("Sa'm Pedi"), un-relatable ("Looking at Emmett Till"), or just a confusing, rambling jumble ("An Album Quilt"). (Sorry.) At the end of each story, the author reflects on writing his or her essay and gives advice for budding writers. I liked reading all of these conclusions, because it really gave life to the essay, letting me inside the writer's head as they described their struggles. Most ended up adding material to their essays by accident, but found that it became the piece's defining trait; some went through the ordeal of reliving painful experiences. This helped me connect the writing to a living human being, rather than having the author be some abstract being whose words I labor to interpret. It's creative nonfiction; it's real.
In conclusion, future seniors should not be afraid of this book.
September 3, 2009
As with almost any collection of work by various authors, "In Fact" is rather uneven. There were a few great stories, a few terrible ones, but mostly they were in-between.
I think my biggest complaint is really a differing idea of what creative non-fiction is. Gutkind's choices include too many stories that, to me, are more memoir than anything else, but when I think of creative non-fiction I tend to think of non-fiction pieces on a particular subject, like homesteading (Jonathan Raban's "Bad Land") or medical anthropology (Anne Fadiman's "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down") that are recounted creatively and with the author's own emotions and experiences included as part of the story.
Annie Dillard's introduction is humorous, practical, and (to aspiring writers) hope-giving -- and frankly, more worthwhile than Lee Gutkind's foreword.
Some of my very favorite of the stories are, in order of appearance:
Killing Wolves, Sherry Simpson
Being Bryans, Bryan Doyle
Gray Area, Floyd Skloot
Sa'm Pèdi, Madison Smartt Bell
It's also worth noting that either Gutkind or Ntozake Shange (author: "What We Really Harvestin' Here?") made a glaring mistake. Shange's bibliographical blurb gives the meaning of her name "in Xhosa, the Zulu language," but Xhosa isn't the Zulu language -- Zulu is. The Xhosa and the Zulu are two very different ethnic groups that both happen to live in South Africa.
I finished every story in the book except for one, Robert Rodriguez's (purposefully) purple and opaque "Brown Study," which is worth skipping.
I think my biggest complaint is really a differing idea of what creative non-fiction is. Gutkind's choices include too many stories that, to me, are more memoir than anything else, but when I think of creative non-fiction I tend to think of non-fiction pieces on a particular subject, like homesteading (Jonathan Raban's "Bad Land") or medical anthropology (Anne Fadiman's "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down") that are recounted creatively and with the author's own emotions and experiences included as part of the story.
Annie Dillard's introduction is humorous, practical, and (to aspiring writers) hope-giving -- and frankly, more worthwhile than Lee Gutkind's foreword.
Some of my very favorite of the stories are, in order of appearance:
Killing Wolves, Sherry Simpson
Being Bryans, Bryan Doyle
Gray Area, Floyd Skloot
Sa'm Pèdi, Madison Smartt Bell
It's also worth noting that either Gutkind or Ntozake Shange (author: "What We Really Harvestin' Here?") made a glaring mistake. Shange's bibliographical blurb gives the meaning of her name "in Xhosa, the Zulu language," but Xhosa isn't the Zulu language -- Zulu is. The Xhosa and the Zulu are two very different ethnic groups that both happen to live in South Africa.
I finished every story in the book except for one, Robert Rodriguez's (purposefully) purple and opaque "Brown Study," which is worth skipping.
March 19, 2019
I love teaching CNF from this book!
May 20, 2011
“In Fact” was a phenomenal collection of creative nonfiction pieces, but my favorite essay had to be “Shunned” by Meredith Hall. In “Shunned” Meredith is sixteen and pregnant in 1965 New Hampshire, living in a small, close-knit community that ostracizes her after hearing of her condition. Her description of what it is like being a pregnant teenager was heartbreaking and really opened my eyes to teenage pregnancy, and also to the fact that people can and will treat you differently as soon as you do something against the social norm.
This essay discussed many important themes, such as teenage pregnancy, how quickly a community can turn its back, being left behind, and the pressures, expectations, and requirements of 1960’s American society.
There were also several supporting characters, including Meredith’s mother, who asks her to leave the house and live with her father, and her father, who doesn’t let her go outside while she is pregnant and lives with him and his new wife.
The only thing I disliked about the story “Shunned” was the fact that it made me remember events in my own life, such as being left behind by an old school with my old friends whom I had been with since kindergarten. But, I suppose, such is life.
I enjoyed how this book was geared towards young writers. Each essay is ended with a note from the author explaining more about the writing style, process, etc., and the book is started off with a message to young authors.
This essay discussed many important themes, such as teenage pregnancy, how quickly a community can turn its back, being left behind, and the pressures, expectations, and requirements of 1960’s American society.
There were also several supporting characters, including Meredith’s mother, who asks her to leave the house and live with her father, and her father, who doesn’t let her go outside while she is pregnant and lives with him and his new wife.
The only thing I disliked about the story “Shunned” was the fact that it made me remember events in my own life, such as being left behind by an old school with my old friends whom I had been with since kindergarten. But, I suppose, such is life.
I enjoyed how this book was geared towards young writers. Each essay is ended with a note from the author explaining more about the writing style, process, etc., and the book is started off with a message to young authors.
October 19, 2007
I finished this books weeks agos, and to its credit I continue to refer to it in conversation. I have two major criticisms for this volume. First, the sheer length is daunting--I felt hijacked halfway through it. I don't usually read more than one book at a time and I couldn't move through this dense thicket of essays with any speed. Additionally, it's poorly organized. I wasn't sure why the essays were in their particular order. And each essay has a distracting bio of the author on the first page so that just as you're absorbing the opening line of an author's hard-fought essay, the line organization of the page tosses you into a not-that-well-written bio. These are both petty annoyances, I admit. If you love essays, I do recommend _In Fact_. Lots of good reading. Annie Dillard's intro is so good that I literally had to set the book down when I was finished reading it. Floyd Skloot's "Thinking With a Damaged Brain" and Philip Gerard's "Delivering Lily" were also mind twisting they were so well written. "Thinking" totally changed my perception of brain injuries and "Lily" should be required reading for all fathers-to-be.
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