Table of Contents

PART I: WRITING CREATIVE NONFICTION.
1. Why Creative Nonfiction?
2. The Power of the Notebook.
3. Ten Ways to a Draft.
4. Taking Shape.
5. Finding Voice.
Twenty Ways to Talk about Creative Nonfiction.
6. Workshopping a Draft.
7. The Craft of Revision.
8. Exploring New Media.
9. The Role of Research.
10. The Ethics of Creative Nonfiction.
PART II: READING CREATIVE NONFICTION.
11. Memoir.
Alice Walter, Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self. Lee Martin, Never Thirteen. Lisa Chavez, Independence Day, Manley Hot Springs, Alaska. Nora Ephron, A Few Words About Breasts. Tony Earley, Somehow Form a Family.
12. Personal Essay.
Brain Doyle, Being Brians. E.J. Levy, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Scott Russell Sanders, Under the Influence. Kandi Tayebi, Warring Memories. Dudley Clendinen, The Good Short Life. Rebecca McClanahan, Book Marks.
13. Portrait.
Charles Simic, Dinner at Uncle Boris'. Jill Lepore, Poor Jane's Almanac. Susan Allen Toth, Going to the Movies. Max Apple, Roommates. Alice Steinbach, The Miss Dennis School of Writing. Jerald Walker, Before Grief.
14. Essay of Place.
Pico Iyer, Chapels. Yunte Huang, Southern Hospitality, but Not for Newcomers. Gretchen Legler, Movements of Being: An Antarctic Quintet. Dagoberto Gilb, Living Al Chuco. E.B. White, Once More to the Lake.
15. Narrative Journalism.
Richard Selzer, Four Appointments with the Discus Thrower. Susan Orlean, Meet the Shaggs. George Orwell, A Hanging. Tracy Kidder, from Among Schoolchildren.
16. Stories of Craft.
Patricia Hampl, Memory and Imagination. Lisa Knopp, Perhapsing: The Use of Speculation in Creative Nonfiction. Kim Stafford, The Writer as Professional Eavesdropper. Sue Miller, from A Lecture on Revision. Colin Rafferty, Ten Year Reunion: Writing 'Boys Least Likely to'.
17. Short Shorts.
Bailey White, Buzzard. Sven Birkerts, Every Day. Kathleen Norris, Rain. Amy Butcher, Still Things. Judith Kitchen, Only the Dance. Stephen Dunn, Locker Room Talk. Maureen Stanton, Water. Norma Ella Cantu, Tino & Papi.

About the Author

Mimi is the author of five books, most recently, Good Neighbors, Bad Times: Echoes of My Father's German Village, a winner of the ForeWord Magazine for Best Memoir in 2008. Other books include Writing for Many Roles; Writer's Craft, Teacher's Art; and Thoughts from a Queen-Sized Bed, a memoir about life in a long marriage, what you get and give up for it that was a JCC Book Club Pick for nonfiction in 2002. Mimi's short work has appeared in over fifty venues, both academic (College English, English Journal, Chronicles of Higher Ed) and literary (The Missouri Review, Agni, Brevity, Tikkun, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Arts & Culture, River Teeth, Calyx, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times). Seven essays have been Notables in Best American Essays. Professor Emerita in Writing at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Mimi teaches writing workshops in creative nonfiction nationwide and abroad. For more information, go to www.MimiSchwartz.net. Sondra is the author of six books, among them, Landmark Essays on Writing Process; Felt Sense: Writing with the Body; 'Stepping on My Brother's Head' and Other Secrets Your English Professor Never Told You, creative nonfiction essays written by well-known writing teachers across the county and co-edited with Charles Schuster; and On Austrian Soil: Teaching Those I Was Taught to Hate, a memoir that tells the story of what happened to Sondra when she found herself teaching Austrian teachers whose parents had been Nazis. This book was a finalist in the 2006 Independent Booksellers Award for memoir and led to the creation of the Holocaust Educators Network, which Sondra now directs at the Memorial Library in New York City. A professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Sondra has received numerous awards and honors including a Guggenheim fellowship and the Professor of the Year Award from the Carnegie Foundation. For more info, go to www.thememoriallibary.org.

Reviews

PART I: WRITING CREATIVE NONFICTION. 1. Why Creative Nonfiction? 2. The Power of the Notebook. 3. Ten Ways to a Draft. 4. Taking Shape. 5. Finding Voice. Twenty Ways to Talk about Creative Nonfiction. 6. Workshopping a Draft. 7. The Craft of Revision. 8. Exploring New Media. 9. The Role of Research. 10. The Ethics of Creative Nonfiction. PART II: READING CREATIVE NONFICTION. 11. Memoir. Alice Walter, Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self. Lee Martin, Never Thirteen. Lisa Chavez, Independence Day, Manley Hot Springs, Alaska. Nora Ephron, A Few Words About Breasts. Tony Earley, Somehow Form a Family. 12. Personal Essay. Brain Doyle, Being Brians. E.J. Levy, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Scott Russell Sanders, Under the Influence. Kandi Tayebi, Warring Memories. Dudley Clendinen, The Good Short Life. Rebecca McClanahan, Book Marks. 13. Portrait. Charles Simic, Dinner at Uncle Boris'. Jill Lepore, Poor Jane's Almanac. Susan Allen Toth, Going to the Movies. Max Apple, Roommates. Alice Steinbach, The Miss Dennis School of Writing. Jerald Walker, Before Grief. 14. Essay of Place. Pico Iyer, Chapels. Yunte Huang, Southern Hospitality, but Not for Newcomers. Gretchen Legler, Movements of Being: An Antarctic Quintet. Dagoberto Gilb, Living Al Chuco. E.B. White, Once More to the Lake. 15. Narrative Journalism. Richard Selzer, Four Appointments with the Discus Thrower. Susan Orlean, Meet the Shaggs. George Orwell, A Hanging. Tracy Kidder, from Among Schoolchildren. 16. Stories of Craft. Patricia Hampl, Memory and Imagination. Lisa Knopp, Perhapsing: The Use of Speculation in Creative Nonfiction. Kim Stafford, The Writer as Professional Eavesdropper. Sue Miller, from A Lecture on Revision. Colin Rafferty, Ten Year Reunion: Writing 'Boys Least Likely to'. 17. Short Shorts. Bailey White, Buzzard. Sven Birkerts, Every Day. Kathleen Norris, Rain. Amy Butcher, Still Things. Judith Kitchen, Only the Dance. Stephen Dunn, Locker Room Talk. Maureen Stanton, Water. Norma Ella Cantu, Tino & Papi.