Creative Nonfiction

"Finding true ways to see, feel, empathize and hear from other people that are different from you – this is the time to do this. This is really, really pivotal work."

Radiolab's Latif Nasser on leading with the question, nuance in science journalism, and building trust:

Leading with the question: Radiolab’s Latif Nasser on building relationships with audiences despite distrust Radiolab's Latif Nasser talks about how to cultivate relationships with new audiences at a time when science journalists face daunting challenges posed by misinformation and public distrust.

Retrospection is a powerful form of meaning making: it allows us to consider what happened through the lens of subsequent experience, adding a layer of significance to memory and allowing the writer to recognize and reflect on what’s changed.

In our next webinar, Michael Copperman will examine how tense functions; consider the often-repeated advice that present tense is more vivid and immediate; and analyze how mastering tense allows seasoned writers to engage in retrospection and reflection.

Angle of Vision: Reflection and Retrospection, Tense and Time
Wednesday, November 2 at 2 pm Eastern
Join us: https://buff.ly/3U2eejW

"That a writer can learn the craft of writing but not how to weigh and face possible negative implications to their work needs to be remedied.

Ethics are not ancillary to craft but, in fact, critical to the craft of writing. And when it comes to writing about social issues, I will go so far as to say that you cannot write about social issues responsibly unless your work is grounded in ethics. So many problematic essays that have been and continue to be published, sometimes to the regret of the writer and to the distress of many readers, could be avoided by foregrounding discussions of ethics and moral clarity in the work and in the editorial process."

Kavita Das considers what it means to "make an impact" with your writing:

On the Ethics of Writing About Social Issues (While Minimizing Harm) Like so many other writers, I was shocked and saddened by the brutality of the recent attack on famed author Salman Rushdie. As someone who transitioned to becoming a full-time writer ten years ago…

An awareness of historical context can help you enrich your story and reach a broader and more diverse audience.

In our next webinar, Patti Kameya will provide you with the tools for understanding how your story may connect to other stories. .

Exploring the “So What?” and “Why Now?” with Historical Context
Wednesday, October 26 at 2 pm Eastern
https://buff.ly/3Nfp0k3

Webinars with CNF are a convenient & affordable opportunity to learn & practice the art, craft, or business of creative nonfiction—every week. Join in real-time and take part in the conversation. Afterward, you'll receive the recording as a resource you can return to again and again.

Keeping a writer's notebook can transform your daily grind into meaningful artistic output.

In our next webinar, Lindsey DeLoach Jones will teach you how a notebook practice can help revitalize your writing practice and infuse your creative life with new energy and techniques.

The Writer’s Notebook: How and Why It Works
Wednesday, October 19 at 2 pm Eastern
https://buff.ly/3eD4Y6m

Webinars with CNF are a convenient & affordable opportunity to learn & practice the art, craft, or business of creative nonfiction—every week. Join in real-time and take part in the conversation. Afterward, you'll receive the recording as a resource you can return to again and again.

Any morning with a new issue of Brevity in it is a good morning!

Issue 71 / Sept 2022 | Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction

How is gardening like writing? "[A] superficial pass often doesn’t get you much, either in the worlds of blackberry hacking or journalism, if what you’re after is a top, berry-producing plant or the most thorough, compelling story you can write. In fact, nipping just serves to reveal how much more pruning (editing) is needed if you want to get to the good stuff."

Hacking and whacking the way to writing clarity — and pie | Nieman Storyboard An author and freelancer contemplates story craft as she tames and harvests the blackberry brambles on her land

In tomorrow's webinar, learn how to write beautiful beginnings that hook the reader and brilliant endings to keep them thinking about your work long after closing the book or clicking away.

Beautiful Beginnings, Brilliant Endings on Wednesday, 8/24 at 2 pm Eastern with Allison K Williams. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://creativenonfiction.org/product/beautiful-beginnings-brilliant-endings/

Revising a memoir can feel overwhelming. But it’s a crucial process that helps memoirists take their story to the next level, making it compelling to readers and irresistible to agents. In this Wednesday's webinar, gain a toolbox of revision strategies and a roadmap for honing your memoir draft.

Roadmap to Revision with Katie Bannon, Wednesday 8/10 at 2 pm Eastern. Registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://creativenonfiction.org/product/roadmap-to-revision-make-your-memoir-agent-ready/

In tomorrow's webinar, learn how the guiding questions of journalism apply to memoir, too. These guidelines will help you explore the foundational issues in creating a true narrative that rewards writer & reader.

Wednesday, 7/27 at 2 pm Eastern with Jessica Handler. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://buff.ly/3OBmmEl

Next up in our webinar series, learn to write confidently and artfully about sociopolitical topics to engage and challenge readers without alienating them.

Wednesday, July 20 @ 2 pm Eastern with Jaswinder Bolina. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://buff.ly/3IKDUfU

As you connect and synthesize your ideas, you’ll see how a strong voice and structure emerge in your work—elements that, ultimately, make readers want to turn pages.

In our NEW self-guided online class, you will learn how to recognize natural patterns and connections in your writing, and practice synthesizing them for top emotional impact.

Zen of Process | July 25 - August 19

Zen of Process - Creative Nonfiction As you connect and synthesize your ideas, you’ll see how a strong voice and structure emerge in your work—elements that, ultimately, make readers want to turn pages.

We're excited to announce another new Sunday Short Reads partner: beginning this Sunday, you'll see short essays from the Fourth Genre archives!

Join the list and catch up on past issues here:

Subscribe to Sunday Short Reads Every Sunday morning we email out a flash essay of no more than 1,000 words right to your inbox, with no ads and no need to click through to a website. The pieces featured in the Sunday Short Read are hand-selected from the archives of Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, Diagram, Hippocampus Magazine, R...

What is flash nonfiction, and what are its possibilities and limitations? Our next webinar is a FREE presentation with a panel of three literary nonfiction editors who will discuss this exciting and sometimes confounding form.

Wednesday, July 6 @ 2 pm Eastern with Jenn Scheck-Kahn, Dinty W. Moore & Rae Pagliarulo. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://creativenonfiction.org/product/long-story-short-the-art-of-flash-nonfiction/

We're excited to announce that starting this Sunday (6/19), the Sunday Short Reads lineup will include short essays from the Hippocampus Magazine archives!

Join the list and catch up on past issues here: https://subscribe.creativenonfiction.org/sunday-short-reads

In our next webinar, we’ll focus on the problem of how to ensure that there’s something in your creative nonfiction story—a compelling question or element of suspense or promise of something to come—that hooks your reader in the first paragraph or two and keeps them going, all the way to the end.

Wednesday, June 22 @ 2 pm Eastern with B. Pietras. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://buff.ly/3H34lgd

CNF is seeking instructors from diverse backgrounds and cultural experiences who are passionate about helping other nonfiction writers improve their craft. We have opportunities for instructors, publishing professionals, and curriculum designers for 5- and 10-week asynchronous online courses, webinars, and self-guided courses.

Application deadline 7.31.22

https://creativenonfiction.org/opportunities-at-cnf/

Memoir is not a mere series of facts; it’s a vehicle for telling a story that the author experienced, and there are many ways to evoke the truth of that story. Our next webinar offers insight into the vast potential of speculative memoir and provides tools for you to bring speculative elements into your own writing—without breaking the contract with the reader for “accuracy” in memoir.

Wednesday, June 15 @ 2 pm Eastern with Laraine Herring. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://buff.ly/3Nhz8YF

In CNF 77, we published some of our favorite Twitter micro-essays of fleeting joys, wistful memories, and passing sadnesses from the past two years.

Want to join in the fun? Follow us on Twitter and tag your stories with . Your micro-essay could appear in the next issue of CNF!

Tiny Truths 77 - Creative Nonfiction Micro-essays of fleeting joys, wistful memories, and passing sadnesses from the past two years

"Maybe demolitions are actually renovations, which has me thinking that this world is being rebuilt big time—although, sure, right now it feels awfully torn apart. I say: let's wait and see?

Or that's what I tell myself as the mandatory evacuation area creeps closer to my home and acre of land in the foothills of Colorado. The nearby mountains are on fire..."
https://creativenonfiction.org/writing/renovations/

Renovations - Creative Nonfiction The necessary folly of rebuilding a home in a world on fire

Are you writing a narrative with a legal or courtroom component? In our next webinar, we'll discuss how to research court cases, understand legal terms, and make sense of civil or criminal procedures—and examine works of nonfiction that artfully integrate legal research components.

Wednesday, June 8 @ 2 pm Eastern with Anthony Aycock. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://buff.ly/3xfE1fc

For a special expanded anniversary edition of I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse, Creative Nonfiction/In Fact Books is seeking essays by and about nurses.

We’re looking especially for pandemic-era stories, which examine the complex and essential role nurses of all kinds have played in providing care and guidance for patients and families, as well as the ways in which the pandemic has affected both individuals and the healthcare system. As always, we are looking for writers who can write vividly about their work, in a narrative form, with scenes, description, characters, and a distinctive voice.

Deadline for submissions: Monday, June 27, 2022

https://creativenonfiction.org/submission/true-stories-by-or-about-nurses/

Thrilled to see Julia Koets's "The Rib Joint" (CNF #71) featured on this fantastic list of q***r stories from the South.

‘We Are Everywhere’: A Reading List for the Queer South It is time now to listen. We are not going anywhere.

"What does it mean to write about another person? How do you do justice to them on the page? What if you get it wrong? What if it isn’t your story to tell?"

Sarah Sentilles on Writing about People You Know A version of this essay first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. What does it mean to write about another person? How do you do justice to them on the page? What if…

"A joke is a way of telling it slant."

In Punching Up (CNF 77), Caroline Hagood discusses how funny women are bringing serious subjects to the stage and revolutionizing comedy—and creative nonfiction—in the process.

Punching Up - Creative Nonfiction Funny women are bringing serious subjects to the stage and revolutionizing comedy—and creative nonfiction—in the process

Next up: a craft-intensive webinar that will change the way you think about the characters on the page. We'll discuss how we develop scenes stemming from histories that are not ours, how we move a character ahead in time, and how we use others in our work to also develop ourselves.

Wednesday, May 25 @ 2 pm Eastern with Beth Kephart. As always, registration closes an hour prior, and all registrants will receive a recording following the program.

https://creativenonfiction.org/product/character-development-writing-our-others/

Happy to see A.J. Bermudez's wide-ranging exploration of how we grieve—and how we write about grief—featured at Lit Hub today:

"Writing, like mourning, is a constant negotiation between the political and the personal. No guide can dictate how much or how little to share, how to be both vulnerable and intact, what cost we should allow our authenticity to exact from us, how formal or casual to be."

https://lithub.com/a-few-notes-on-the-past-and-possible-future-of-public-mourning/