The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre: An Anthology of Explorations in Creative Nonfiction

by Joe Wilkins, Joe Wilkins (Editor)

Though creative nonfiction has been around since Montaigne, St. Augustine, and Seneca, we’ve only just begun to ask how this genre works, why it functions the way it does, and where its borders reside. But for each question we ask, another five or ten questions roil to the surface. And each of these questions, it seems, requires a more convoluted series of answers. What’s more, the questions students of creative nonfiction are drawn to during class discussions, the ones they argue the longest and loudest, are the same ideas debated by their professors in the hallways and at the corner bar. In this collection, sixteen essential contemporary creative nonfiction writers reflect on whatever far, dark edge of the genre they find themselves most drawn to. The result is this fascinating anthology that wonders at the historical and contemporary borderlands between fiction and nonfiction; the illusion of time on the page; the mythology of memory; poetry, process, and the use of received forms; the impact of technology on our writerly lives; immersive research and the power of witness; a chronology and collage; and what we write and why we Nancer Ballard, H. Lee Barnes, Kim Barnes, Mary Clearman Blew, Joy Castro, Robin Hemley, Judith Kitchen, Brenda Miller, Ander Monson, Dinty W. Moore, Sean Prentiss, Lia Purpura, Erik Reece, Jonathan Rovner, Bob Shacochis, and Joe Wilkins.

Genres: Writing, Essays, Nonfiction

168 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2014

About the author

Joe Wilkins was born and raised on the Big Dry of eastern Montana and now lives in the foothills of the Coast Range of Oregon. He is the author of a novel, Fall Back Down When I Die, praised as “remarkable and unforgettable” in a starred review at Booklist. A finalist for the First Novel Award from the Center for Fiction and the Pacific Northwest Book Award, Fall Back Down When I Die won the High Plains Book Award and has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and German. Wilkins is also the author of a memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers, and four collections of poetry, including Pastoral, 1994, and When We Were Birds, winner of the Oregon Book Award. His second novel, The Entire Sky, is out now with Little, Brown. Wilkins directs the creative writing program at Linfield University and is a member of the low-residency MFA faculty at Eastern Oregon University.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth genre (or otherwise known as literary nonfiction, creative nonfiction, literary journalism, the literature of fact, etc...) is not new; indeed, this genre has been around for a long, long time. Many books that have been published wear the label of creative nonfiction, yet more needs to be written about works that fall into the hazy boundaries of this fourth genre. The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre: An Anthology of Explorations in Creative Nonfiction is an interesting collection of essays that explore issues and challenges facing creative nonfiction. This anthology is not a collection of creative works; instead, editors Sean Prentiss and Joe Wilkins have gathered together many contemporary authors who explore different aspects of creative nonfiction. For example, many authors discuss the often revisited topic of memory and truth, while others explore style and reflection. Certainly, this book does not cover all views about this increasingly popular genre, but it's a great place to start!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first started reading The Far Edges of the Fourth Genre a bazillion years ago, it seems, though it might not be that long ago. I know I taught it two summers ago but didn't finish reading the essays I didn't pick. So I finished it this summer, and the collection as a whole doesn't disappoint. Some of the essays are definitely more about craft, whereas other essays are more implicit in the way they connect their own essaying to the field/craft. I'd recommend this anthology to anyone interested in writing CNF, though I do think perhaps a more intermediate CNF writer might find it more useful, as the introduction and the essays themselves skip over the definitions and writing exercises that you might find in Tell It Slant and instead meditate on the genre. There are a few essays that might work more for beginners, but as a whole, this is a deeper look at--as the title says--the far edges of CNF.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology of experimental nonfiction pieces. Some interesting work, but I’m not sure the collection as a whole makes a statement.

[Robert Greenberger · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a required book for my Creative Non-fiction class and I have no desire to seek out anything the authors have written. This overly self-serious collection of essays is dry, not creative; boring, not compelling. They take an interesting form of writing and suck the life out of it with navel gazing and "deep" thought. I do not look forward to the class discussions surrounding this one.