Creative Non-fiction

What Is Creative Non-fiction? 

by Lee Gutkind of CreativeNonfiction.org

Simply put: Creative non-fiction is true stories, well told. 

If novels are fiction and poems are, well, poetry, then what are memoirs? What about essays, narrative journalism, and so many other kinds of true stories that give us new ways to consider the world around us and our place in it? From books to magazine articles to podcasts, creative non-fiction surrounds us. The banner of Creative Nonfiction defines the genre simply, succinctly, and accurately as “true stories, well told.” In some ways, creative nonfiction is like jazz—it’s a rich mix of flavors, ideas, and techniques, some newly invented and others as old as writing itself. Creative nonfiction can be an essay, a journal article, a research paper, a memoir, a tweet; it can be personal or not, or it can be all of these... 

Click here to read the rest of this introduction to creative non-fiction by Lee Gutkind. He is the author and editor of more than thirty books, including You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Non-fiction–from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between. The rest of the article also includes a section of links to other webpages exploring topic areas including: the nuts and bolts of creative nonfiction, history of the genre, why true stories matter, under the umbrella (learn about the subgenres of creative nonfiction).  

Lee Gutkind Talks Creative Non-fiction

More Defining of Creative Non-fiction

The Creative Nonfiction (CNF) genre can be rather elusive. It is focused on story, meaning it has a narrative plot with an inciting moment, rising action, climax and denouement, just like fiction. However, nonfiction only works if the story is based in truth, an accurate retelling of the author’s life experiences. The pieces can vary greatly in length, just as fiction can; anything from a book-length autobiography to a 500-word food blog post can fall within the genre.

Click here to read more from Owl Purdue and also have a look at their list of sub-genres of creative nonfiction.

Suggested Readings

Introducing Creative Nonfiction

Creative nonfiction is a term used to describe nonfiction prose work that uses the techniques of creative writing (which are most obvious in fiction) to bring it to life. The term covers memoir, literary or personal essays, experimental nonfiction, lyric essays and literary journalism but not news reportage, poetry or fiction. Philip Gerard says: ‘Creative non-fiction is the stories you find out, captured with a clear eye and an alert imagination, filtered through a mind passionate to know and tell, told accurately and with compelling grace.’ ... (Westerly Magazine)

Click here to read more of this article that is published by the Westerly Centre at the University of Western Australia. This article includes an interview with Rachel Robertson who is a writer and senior lecturer in Professional Writing and Publishing at Curtin University 

The 5 Rs of Creative Nonfiction by Lee Gutkind

It is 3 a.m., and I am standing on a stool in the operating room at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in scrubs, mask, cap and paper booties, peering over the hunched shoulders of four surgeons and a scrub nurse as a dying woman’s heart and lungs are being removed from her chest. This is a scene I have observed frequently since starting my work on a book about the world of organ transplantation, but it never fails to amaze and startle me: to look down into a gaping hole in a human being’s chest, which has been cracked open and emptied of all of its contents, watching the monitor and listening to the rhythmic sighing sounds of the ventilator, knowing that this woman is on the fragile cusp of life and death and that I am observing what might well be the final moments of her life. (Gutkind)

Click here to read more as Gutkind shifts through modes of story-telling to make visible the excitement of creative non-fiction writing.

Surveying the Australian Literary Landscape: The pioneers, veterans, and newcomers of Creative Non-fiction in Australia by Lee Kofman. Published in CreativeNonfiction.org  

Creative non-fiction is one of the fastest-growing literary genres in Australia, amongst both readers and writers. Australian memoirs, essay collections, literary investigative journalism, food, travel and true crime books occupy increasing shelf space in our bookshops and appear on our bestseller lists (and, occasionally, on international ones, too)... to read more, click here.

Creative Non-Fiction

You can freely access many of the articles published by creativenonfiction.org. Note also, there is a search bar where you can search by topic area or keyword, this may be handy once you begin to narrow your area of focus to find helpful inspiration. Click here to access the magazine.

Fifty (plus) Literary Magazines that publish Creative Nonfiction

All the magazines listed in the link below have published essays that appeared in the Table of Contents or the Notable Essays section of the annual anthology BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS. Please note there will be some linked websites that have free access, and others that should be avoided as they require payment. This is a great way to find examples of creative non-fiction essays: http://www.unm.edu/~gmartin/handouts/litmagsCNF.htm

Express Media / Voiceworks

Express Media are Australian publishers who focus on publishing young writers. They have a useful tips page for writers of creative non-fiction and a list of other publishers where writers can submit their work for consideration for publishing,   

Longform

Longform is a publisher and promoter of essays and podcasts. Longform.org recommends new and classic non-fiction from around the web. Here is a link to their "best": https://longform.org/best

Stranger than fiction (Experimental Biographies)

It's not just novels that play with form and convention. Julian Loose looks at the revolutions in non-fiction writing

An experimental work of non-fiction can be hard to find - which is not to say that such works don't exist, but that booksellers are understandably clueless as to where to place them. Are the singular products of a writer like W G Sebald, for example, best categorised under history or travel, memoir or fiction? Where to shelve the similarly wide-flung sparks that fly from the idiosyncratic pen of Iain Sinclair? Click here to read more of this article published in the Guardian Newspaper (Sat 28 Jul 2001).

The Everything Creative Writing Book - all you Need to Know to Write a Novel, Play, Short Story, Screenplay, Poem or Article by Carol Whiteley

This book includes sections on creative non-fiction writing. This was published in 2002, it is possibly dated in some ways. You can find this in non-fiction: 808.042 WHI 

State Library of NSW Databases

The State Library of NSW provides access to multiple databases that have published articles, essays, reviews and more. Click here to see the shortlist of literature databases, there is also from the State Lib. of NSW this list of databases specifically for HSC English. For more information about how to obtain a membership number or navigate through their databases, click here.

Absurdism

Absurdism: A short overview of the Absurdist philosophy.

"Life is pretty absurd. In it besets a significant discrepancy between what we desire from the universe and what we find. As humans, we ache in the search for reasons, meaning, and order, but all that we can discover is chaos. Thus, the contradictory nature of the universe and the human mind is where the Absurd lies." read more 

Absurdism: From: Literary Movements for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Literary Movements. Editor: Ira Mark Milne  

"Absurdism, and its more specific companion term Theatre of the Absurd, refers to the works of a group of Western European and American dramatists writing and producing plays in the 1950s and early 1960s. The term "Theatre of the Absurd" was coined by critic Martin Esslin, who identified common features of a new style of drama that seemed to ignore theatrical conventions and thwart audience expectations. Characterized by a departure from realistic characters and situations, the plays offer no clear notion of the time or place in which the action occurs." read more from this comprehensive exploration of Aubsurdism.

Discussion of the Absur Discussion of the Absurd in Alber d in Albert Camus' No t Camus' Novels Essa els Essays and Journals by Melissa Payne 

This is an in-depth anaylsis of Abert Camus and Absurdism. At 85 pages you may want to start with the intro and conclusion, or search the doc for key words if you are not able to read the whole doc: click here to read.