Writing Creative Nonfiction

List Price: $18.99
Our Price: $8.46
You Save: $10.53 (55%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions

Book Summary Information

• ISBN13: 9781884910500
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of Writing Creative Nonfiction

Book Review: A Journey for Writers and Teachers of Writing
Summary: 5 Stars

It's a compendium of essays and writing exercises written by various authors from poet to essayist to magazine feature article writer, with some selections of their writings at the end of the book.

Don't let the long titles of mini-chapters steer you away from this book. For example, one chapter is entitled "Saying goodbye to once upon a time or implementing postmodernism in creative nonfiction." It may sound daunting, but the chapter is written clearly, creatively and thoughtfully about how fact, truth and fiction often get tangled when we write. The author of this chapter, Laura Wexler, shows us that the only place we can find cold, hard facts is in fairy tales. Yes, that's right. Fairy tales. Because in a fairy tale we can all say with certainty that Cinderella lost her glass slipper and Prince Charming found it and placed it on her foot, and they got married. But life isn't like that. And neither is nonfiction writing.

Wexler writes, regarding the Rodney King beating: "The Rodney King beating cannot be told as a fairy tale. There is no single true version of What Happened. Because everything about it is up for grabs, everything is unstable: motives, actions, and interpretations. It seems we cannot, despite Rodney King's famous plea, 'all get along' -- because we tell different stories about the same events. We always do." Wexler, however, does not leave us perlexed and discouraged about this "fact." Instead she offers insights and advice on how to write while remembering the nebulous qualitites of truth, fact, and fiction.

Incidentally, references to recent events such as the Rodney King beating pepper the essays throughout the book making it "fresh" and "new."

Not every chapter is as captivating as the one described above, and occasionally, some of the authors of the essays tend to become preocuppied with their knowledge of other authors and writing. And although I enjoyed the chapter on humor writing, I had hoped for much more on this subject. We need not be told that irony, satire and exaggeration are tools in humorous writing; rather we need to be shown how to use them, what works, and what doesn't.

The writing and interviewing exercises in the book are worthwhile, and I would have liked more. One example: Interview separately two people who were involved in the same event. Transcribe the interviews and consider the similarities and differences in the two versions.

This exercise is terrific for journalists as well as creative writers.

As a writer and editor, I found the book to be reaffirming as well as challenging. Many of the writing philosophies I've developed over the years are explained in exemplary fashion in this book. I am eager to work with my students on the exercises, and to share some of the chapters with my writing and editing colleagues.

Sheryl De Vore Assistant Managing Editor, Pioneer Press Senior Lecturer, Northwestern University, Journalism Department sdevore@voyager.net

Art History Books

• Books > Subjects > Arts & Photography
• Literature & Fiction
• Education & Reference > Words & Language
• Writing
• New & Used Textbooks > Humanities > Literature > Creative Writing & Composition