Jen Hirt & Erin Murphy 
Creating Nonfiction [EPUB ebook] 
Twenty Essays and Interviews with the Writers

Gold Winner for Anthologies, 2016 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards



With a title that suggests both the genre and the process of composing it,
Creating Nonfiction is a collection of essays and interviews that aims to open readers’ and writers’ eyes to the formal possibilities of creative nonfiction. Included are memoirs, personal essays, literary journalism, graphic essays, and lyric essays, and the content is equally diverse, with topics ranging from childbirth to child labor, from dandelions to domestic violence.



Whereas most anthologies leave readers to speculate about the evolution of each contribution,
Creating Nonfiction provides companion interviews that offer insight into the inspiration, drafting, and revision process that produced the essays. Cheryl Strayed talks about how working as a reporter for her hometown newspaper influenced her later writings. Dinty W. Moore reflects on the delicate balance between observation and judgment when writing about subjects whose values differ from your own. Kristen Radtke explains how she decides between textual and visual images when creating a graphic essay. Although they offer an eclectic mix of voices and styles, what these essays all have in common is that ultimately, as contributor Faith Adiele observes, ’truth becomes art.’

Inhoudsopgave

Introduction



1. “Kestrel Avenue” by Cheryl Strayed

Interview with Cheryl Strayed



2. “Free to Good Home” by Lori Jakiela

Interview with Lori Jakiela



3. “Tooth and Claw” by Dinty W. Moore

Interview with Dinty W. Moore



4. “The Collection” by Mary Quade

Interview with Mary Quade



5. “Footnotes & Endnotes” by Michael Martone

Interview with Michael Martone



6. “How to Cure a Fright” by Kelle Groom

Interview with Kelle Groom



7. “The City of the Century” by Kristen Radtke

Interview with Kristen Radtke



8. “Apocalypse, Darling” by Barrie Jean Borich

Interview with Barrie Jean Borich



9. “Birth Geographic” by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Interview with Aimee Nezhukumatathil



10. “How to Give a Baby a Bath” by Marcia Aldrich

Interview with Marcia Aldrich



11. “Seven Fathoms Down” by Steven Church

Interview with Steven Church



12. “Slow Burn” by Erin Murphy

Interview with Erin Murphy



13. “Gunslinging” by Angela Morales

Interview with Angela Morales



14. “The Third Step” by Sheryl St. Germain

Interview with Sheryl St. Germain



15. “My Wobbly Bicycle, 29” by Fleda Brown

Interview with Fleda Brown



16. “Students of the Route” by Jen Hirt

Interview with Jen Hirt



17. “Terremoto” by Toby Thompson

Interview with Toby Thompson



18. “Of Ships and Men” by Cameron Conaway

Interview with Cameron Conaway



19. “How to Make Sense of the Postcolonial Nation-State: A Definition Essay Using Material Lifted Almost Entirely from the Internet as Annotated by the Author, Herself a Nigerian American” by Faith Adiele

Interview with Faith Adiele



20. “You Tube’s Winged Chariot: On Time, Memory, and Internet Video” by Jeffrey Hammond

Interview with Jeffrey Hammond



Acknowledgments

Contributors

Index

Over de auteur

Jen Hirt is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing and Composition at Penn State Harrisburg. She is the author of the memoir
Under Glass: The Girl with a Thousand Christmas Trees.
Erin Murphy is Professor of English at Penn State Altoona. She is the author of six books of poetry, including
Ancilla and coeditor (with Todd Davis) of
Making Poems: Forty Poems with Commentary by the Poets, also published by SUNY Press.