Resources for Writing
Creative Nonfiction

 How-To Books:

Writing Personal Essays: How to Shape Your Life Experiences for the Page
by Sheila Bender

Writing Creative Nonfiction
Edited by Carolyn Forche and Philip Gerard
(Essays on writing creative nonfiction by more than thirty authors)

Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life
by Philip Gerard
(director of the creative writing program at UNC-Wilmington)

The Art of Creative Nonfiction
by Lee Gutkind

Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir
Edited by William Zinsser (wonderful essays by nine authors who have written memoirs, including Annie Dillard, Frank McCourt, and Toni Morrison)

Magazines:

Many magazines publish creative nonfiction. My favorite is The Sun, a monthly magazine with no advertising that is published in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. You can find it at many bookstores and in public libraries. (I recommend subscribing to it; the subscription rate is quite reasonable.)

Check out the latest Writer’s Market, also in the reference section at libraries, for magazines that publish this kind of work. For those just starting out, the literary and “little” magazines are a good place to begin; there are more than one hundred listed in the current Writer’s Market.

Works of Creative Nonfiction:

There are hundreds of examples, but here are a few of my favorites:

Growing Up
by Russell Baker

Liars' Club
by Mary Karr

Bird by Bird
by Anne Lamott

Long Quiet Highway
by Natalie Goldberg

Fear of Fifty
by Erica Jong

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother
by James McBride

Angela’s Ashes
by Frank McCourt

Breaking Writer’s Block:

As you get into writing creative nonfiction you may decide to pen some personal experience stories, even a memoir. If so, you may discover you are nervous about telling certain stories. (What would Aunt Maude say?) Recommended treatment: You must read. . .

The Courage to Write: How Writers Transcend Fear
by Ralph Keyes

Websites :

http://www.creativenonfiction.org

(This site bills itself as “a creative nonfiction newsletter for serious writers and readers.”)

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©2006