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In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction
Twenty-five arresting selections from the groundbreaking journal that defined a genre.Creative nonfiction, also known as narrative nonfiction, liberated journalism by inviting writers to dramatize, interpret, speculate, and even re-create their subjects. Lee Gutkind collects twenty-five essays that flourished on this new ground, all originally published in the journal he founded, Creative Nonfiction, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. Lauren Slater is a therapist in the institution where she was once a patient. John Edgar Wideman reacts passionately to the unjust murder of Emmett Till. Charles Simic tells of wild nights with Uncle Boris. John McPhee creates a rare, personal, album quilt. Terry Tempest Williams speaks on the decline of the prairie dog. Madison Smartt Bell invades Haiti. Many of the writers are crossing genres—from poetry and fiction to nonfiction—symbolic of Creative Nonfiction's scope and popularity. A cross section of the famous and those bound to become so, this collection is a riveting experience highlighting the expanding importance of this dramatic and exciting new genre..
Price: $9.55
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The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality (Wiley Books for Writers Series)
This book is for the beginning creative nonfiction writer--one who needs to be told that writers are an eccentric lot; one who has never heard of the Yaddo artists' colony. Still, Lee Gutkind, the author of several books of creative nonfiction and the founder/editor of the journal Creative Nonfiction, has some interesting things to tell us about this genre of writing, which strives to communicate real-life stories dramatically. The most important quality that a creative nonfiction writer can have, writes Gutkind, is passion: "A passion for the written word; a passion for the search and discovery of knowledge; and a passion for ... understand[ing] intimately how things in this world work." Gutkind offers instruction on finding story ideas, focusing one's work, keeping story files, fact checking, and interviewing; he tells us what to expect from editors and agents; and he teaches us how to know when we're ready to start writing (when you can "think of nothing more to ask or to learn"). Perhaps the best tidbit here is Gutkind's emphasis on delving deeply into one's subject matter without inserting oneself into the situation. "While immersing myself in a writing project," he says, "I routinely like to compare myself to a rather undistinguished and utilitarian end table in a living room or office. It is a fixture. You walk in and out of your living room dozens of times a day. You see the table, you expect to see the table, but you do not say, 'Well, there is the table, hello table.'" Appendices include a sample book proposal and readings. .
Price: $9.11
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The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1
Narrative nonfiction at its cutting-edge best from writers at the cusp of recognition and fame.Lee Gutkind, proclaimed the "Godfather behind creative nonfiction" by Vanity Fair, along with the staff of his landmark journal Creative Nonfiction, has culled alternative publications, 'zines, blogs, podcasts, literary journals, and other often overlooked publications in search of new voices and innovative ideas—essays and articles written with panache and power. "The Truth About Cops and Dogs," by Rebecca Skloot, describes a vicious pack of wild dogs, preying on the domesticated pets of Manhattan. Monica Wojcik's "The w00t Files," for the chic geek crowd, comes directly from John McPhee's famous Literature of Fact workshop at Princeton, a launching pad for famous young writers. Daniel Nestor, of McSweeney's and Bookslut, explains James Frey, while the very overweight Michael Rosenwald becomes a Popular Science nearly nude centerfold in a quest for knowledge about high-tech diagnostics..
Price: $8.84
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Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction
The one guide every creative nonfiction writer needs to turn to when being "creative."Writers of memoir and narrative nonfiction are experiencing difficult days with the discovery that some well-known works in the genre contain exaggerations—or are partially fabricated. But what are the parameters of creative nonfiction? Keep It Real begins by defining creative nonfiction. Then it explores the flexibility of the form—the liberties and the boundaries that allow writers to be as truthful, factual, and artful as possible. A succinct but rich compendium of ideas, terms, and techniques, Keep It Real will clarify the ins and outs of writing creative nonfiction. Starting with the acknowledgement of sources, then running through fact-checking, metaphor, and navel gazing, and ending with writers' responsibilities to their subjects, this book provides all the information writers need to write with verve while remaining true to their story..
Price: $10.00
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The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. 2 (Best Creative Nonfiction)
"Blending precise research and astute observation with flavorful, fascinating narratives."—Publishers Weekly, starred review (for Vol. 1)From Lee Gutkind, the "Godfather behind creative narrative nonfiction" ( Vanity Fair), and the staff of the landmark literary journal Creative Nonfiction comes this fresh collection of fact-based personal narratives, mined from literary blogs, 'zines, and other fringe publications. In "My Glove: A Biography," Stefan Fatsis, author of Word Freak and a Wall Street Journal reporter, traces the history of his baseball glove—"the one thing I would be devastated to lose, my last, best connection to the baseball that defined my life as a kid"—as he relinquishes it to the glove designer at Rawlings for an overhaul. Heidi Julavits, editor of The Believer, imagines a future in which book-related fatalities—"Death of the intellect is one thing, but actual death is quite another"—revolutionize the writer's market. This new volume of The Best Creative Nonfiction continues to engage and delight with exceptional work from writers old and new..
Price: $9.00
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Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather
Dubbed—some would say drubbed—the “godfather behind creative nonfiction” by Vanity Fair, Lee Gutkind takes the opportunity of these essays, and the rich material of his own life, to define, defend, and further expand the genre he has done so much to shape. The result is an explosive and hilarious memoir of Gutkind’s colorful life as a motorcyclist, a medical insider, a sailor, a college professor, an over-aged insecure father, and a literary whipping boy. In Forever Fat Gutkind battles his weight, his ex-wives, his father, his rabbi, his psychiatrist, and his critics in a lifelong cross-country, cross-cultural search for stability and identity. And from Gutkind’s battles, the reader emerges a winner, treated to a sometimes poignant, sometimes harrowing, sometimes uproarious, and always engrossing story of the simultaneous awakening of a man and his mission, and of the constant struggle, in literature and in life, to sort out memory and imagination. Here, enacted in technicolor terms, is the universal, symbolic truth that no matter how far you travel, over how many years, you will never completely shed the weighty baggage of adolescence. Yet, as Gutkind proves again and again, he has learned to describe his burden with an ever-lightening brilliance. .
Price: $11.50
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Almost Human: Making Robots Think
A remarkable, intense portrait of the robotic subculture and the challenging quest for robot autonomy The high bay at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University is alive and hyper night and day with the likes of Hyperion, which traversed the Antarctic, and Zoe, the world's first robot scientist, now back home. Robot Segways learn to play soccer, while other robots go on treasure hunts or are destined for hospitals and museums. Dozens of cavorting mechanical creatures, along with tangles of wire, tools, and computer innards are scattered haphazardly. All of these zipping and zooming gizmos are controlled by disheveled young men sitting on the floor, folding chairs, or tool cases, or huddled over laptops squinting into displays with manic intensity. Award-winning author Lee Gutkind immersed himself in this frenzied subculture, following these young roboticists and their bold conceptual machines from Pittsburgh to NASA and to the most barren and arid desert on earth. He makes intelligible their discoveries and stumbling points in this lively behind-the-scenes work. 15 illustrations..
Price: $6.35
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Anatomy Of Baseball (Sport in American Life)
"These charming essays on baseball themes range from topics like first gloves--mine was a Rawlings Marty Marion model--to the tragic story of the Billy Southworths, father and son, to being relegated to right field or having troubles playing first base. These are tasty morsels "--Fay Vincent, former baseball commissioner "Twenty wonderful writers--that's just enough for two full all-star teams--and two designated hitters."--Christine Brennan, USA Today sports columnist Stefan Fatsis sends his "stunningly perfect, consummately perfect, why-would-anyone-use-anything-else? perfect" glove to be restored by the Glove Designer at Rawlings; Susan Perabo considers retiring from her imaginary career in the majors and assesses the likelihood of women finding actual careers on the baseball field; Sean Wilentz imagines a Cooperstown Fans' Hall of Fame, with its cowbells, frying pans, bedsheet banners, and more. And in one of the three previously published, now classic pieces in the collection, George Plimpton reflects on the slow demotion of aging or slumping players from pitcher to first base, to the outfield. United by the authors' fervent love of the game, these essays remind us of the unique role baseball plays in our national history and collective imagination. A collaboration between SMU Press and the literary journal Creative Nonfiction..
Price: $10.99
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Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation
Although organ transplantation is the preeminent medical miracle of the last quarter of a century, Many Sleepless Nights is the first book to go beyond the headlines and describe the patients who have embraced this last chance to hold on to life, the intricate medical procedures that can save them, the surgeons and nurses who work in this emotionally charged world, and the ethics which complicate this “miracle” high-tech therapy. Lee Gutkind was granted unconditional access to the world’s largest transplant center - the University of Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian-University and Children’s hospitals, where there is an organ transplant every eight hours, 365 days per year. For four years he immersed himself in the frantic night-and-day world of transplantation, living side by side with transplant candidates and recipients, jetting though the night with organ procurement teams, monitoring patients with surgeons and nurses, observing in the operating room, participating in the ethical and psychosocial evaluations of prospective patients which help to determine who will receive scarce organs. During his four years at Presbyterian and Children’s Hospitals, Gutkind established close relationships with many patients, and his portrayal of them, living and sometimes dying under unbelievable stress, is a moving and dramatic statement about the capacity of human beings to endure. Many Sleepless Nights also outlines the history of organ transplantation and tells the story of the large and complex medical teams behind the operation. It captures the tension of the search for viable organs; the pressure decisions about which patients, among many, will receive them; and the surgery itself. Its vivid portrayal of the transplant pioneer Thomas Starzl - a man obsessed with saving lives - shows how a major innovator in American medicine functions during days and nights of extreme pressure. .
Price: $19.95
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The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand: The Game as Umpires See It (Writing Baseball)
To provide this unique—if controversial—look at major league baseball as umpires see it, Lee Gutkind spent the 1974 season traveling with the umpiring crew of Doug Harvey (crew chief), Nick Colosi, Harry Wendelstedt, and Art Williams, the first black umpire in the National League. The result is an honest, realistic, insightful study of the private and professional world of major league umpires: their prejudices and petty biases, their unbending pride in their performance, their inside perspectives on the game, and their bitter criticism of the abuse often directed at their profession and at their conduct. As relevant today as it was in 1974, this illustrated chronicle shows how little has changed in the lives and duties of umpires in the last quarter century.
Guided by his passionate love for the game as he wrote The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand!, Gutkind attempted to present the umpires in a positive but realistic light: "I portrayed them as real people, honorable, hard-working and dedicated, but with warts and flaws like the rest of us. But they didn't want to be compared with real people; they wanted to be umpires—on a plateau above most everyone else." Since the publication of this book in 1975, neither Harvey nor Wendelstedt have communicated with Gutkind, with Wendelstedt even denying that Gutkind traveled with the crew.
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Price: $6.14
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