Creative Nonfiction (magazine)
 Fall-Winter 2011 cover | |
| Editor | Lee Gutkind |
|---|---|
| Categories | literary magazine |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| First issue | 1993 |
| Company | Creative Nonfiction Foundation |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Language | English |
| Website | creativenonfiction.org |
| ISSN | 1070-0714 |
Creative Nonfiction is a literary magazine based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The journal was founded by Lee Gutkind in 1993 making it the first literary magazine to publish, exclusively and on a regular basis, high quality nonfiction prose. In Spring 2010, Creative Nonfiction evolved from journal to magazine format with the addition of new sections such as writer profiles, essays on the craft of writing as well as updates on developments in the literary non-fiction scene. Today, with a circulation of over 7,000, Creative Nonfiction is the largest literary magazine devoted to the genre and to serving a variety of readers, from nonfiction and journalism enthusiasts to poetry and fiction writers, editors and agents.
In its brief history, Creative Nonfiction has already achieved much acclaim. An essay from Creative Nonfiction: Issue 31, "The Writers in the Silos," was reprinted in Harper's September 2007 issue. In 2006 Toi Derricotte's essay "Beginning Dialogues" was featured in The Best American Essays, and two essays, "Road Kill" by Kate Krautkramer and "Ghost Children" by D. Winston Brown, appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading in 2005 and 2007 respectively.
In the past few years, Creative Nonfiction has begun to publish books in collaboration with a number of different publishers, including W.W. Norton and SMU Press.
Past Issues
| Number | Year | Title | Issue Description | Contributing Authors |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1994 | Creative Nonfiction | The Premiere Issue - the one that started it all. |
• Mimi Schwartz |
| 2 | 1994 | Poets Writing Prose | Poetry and creative nonfiction have a lot in common, deftness of word choice and the attention to detail to name a few. In this issue renowned and emerging poets cross forms to produce works of prose. |
• Margaret Gibson |
| 3 | 1995 | Emerging Women Writers | This issue features work by emerging women writers who tell intricately detailed stories while being incisive, reflective and deeply personal. | |
| 4 | 1995 | Creative Nonfiction Classics | This issue brings together classic essays (and a few new ones) that have helped charter the genre and develop it into what it is today. |
• John McPhee |
| 5 | 1996 | Fathers and Fatherhood | This collection gives special attention to the memory of fathers and the importance of their role in family life and the lives of the authors. |
• Phillip Lopate |
| 6 | 1996 | The Essayist at Work | This issue gives the reader a chance to learn more about the craft and process of writing an essay through profiles and stories about the work of authors. |
• Annie Dillard |
| 7 | 1996 | Points of View | This issue contains examples of the potential of the genre and of how much can be accomplished with focused commitment. It also serves as a model of the varied points of view achievable in writing creative nonfiction—from the distance of immersion/reportage to the personal closeness and intimacy of poetry. |
• Maxine Kumin |
| 8 | 1997 | Mostly Memoir | Just as the title implies, this issue provides a short glimpse into the lives of the writers. The authors are sharing something special and true in this collection: their own stories. |
• Ellen Gilchrist |
| 9 | 1997 | Surviving Crisis | This issue highlights some of the most intimate, personal, and challenging moments of the authors' lives. Age, life, and disappointment are common themes throughout this collection. (Special Double Issue) |
• John McPhee |
| 9.5 | 1998 | The Universal Chord | Creative nonfiction essays should strike a universal chord—establish a special place, register an insight, moment, or idea that might be shared and appreciated by a larger readership. All of the essays in this issue will make readers care about what the writers care about—about a place, a time of life, a friend, or loved one. About the things which make all our lives meaningful and interesting. |
• Brian Doyle |
| 10 | 1998 | Style and Substance | The essays in this issue are examples of how writers can blend style and substance, while using a personal voice. The essays in this issue demonstrate the true potential of creative nonfiction. |
• Lee Gutkind |
| 11 | 1998 | A View from the Divide | This special double issue demonstrates the many ways in which aspects of the scientific world—from biology, medicine, physics, and astronomy—can be captured and dramatized for a humanities-oriented readership. This collection of essays captures a range of ideas combining literary style and intellectual substance. These works come from poets, immunologists and physicists, established writers and up-and-coming new talent. (Special issue published by University of Pittsburgh Press.) | |
| 12 | 1999 | Emerging Women Writers II | This follow up issue again features work by emerging women writers who tell intricately detailed stories while being incisive, reflective and deeply personal. | |
| 13 | 1999 | The Brain: A Nonfiction Mystery | This issue explores attempts to live normally with damaged brains and with brains affected by drugs. All the stories are tough illustrations of the complications that interfere with life when the brain is affected even slightly and subtly. | |
| 14 | 2000 | What Men Think, What Men Write | Although the themes of What Men Think, What Men Write significantly differ from those in the Emerging Women Writers issues, what is worth noting about this narrative nonfiction is not so much what distinguishes the men writers from the women, but more what doesn't. |
• Lee Martin |
| 15 | 2000 | Lessons in Persuasion: Writers with Pittsburgh Roots or Connections | Pittsburgh has always been—despite its industrial reputation—a great city in which to be a writer and, although Pittsburgh is not the subject of most of the essays in this issue, the featured authors are bound together by their affinity for the written word and their collective fondness for Pittsburgh. (Special issue published by University of Pittsburgh Press.) |
• Annie Dillard |
| 16 | 2001 | The Line Between Fact and Fiction | This issue explores the importance of creative nonfiction in today's literary world. These essays deal with the division between fiction and nonfiction and why the distinctions matter. |
• Czeslaw Milosz |
| 17 | 2001 | Between the Lines | This issue features essays that, among other things, take us between the lines of writers and readers. These essays are writers writing about writing, and they do it in a variety of creative and informative contexts. | |
| 18 | 2001 | Intimate Details | The essays published in this issue represent survival and change, expressed through dramatic stories and intimacy of detail. |
• Meredith Hall |
| 19 | 2002 | Diversity Details | In this issue, celebrated and emerging authors write essays about diversity that defy easy labels. To seek out some new voices for this collection, Creative Nonfiction teamed up with JPMorganChase to offer a $10,000 prize for narratives about the challenges faced by outsiders in a world where "normal," "regular" and "accepted" are the watchwords and all others are marginalized. |
• Lee Gutkind |
| 20 | 2003 | Clarity | This issue features writers searching for clarity in their lives, and the rest of the world, as they struggle to make social and personal changes. |
• Meredith Hall |
| 21 | 2003 | Rage and Reconciliation | This issue features writers, both patients and doctors, exploring the current state of American health care. (This issue received generous support from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation of Western Pennsylvania.) |
• Linda Peeno |
| 22 | 2004 | Creative Nonfiction in the Crosshairs | This issue responds to the recent barrage of criticism from journalists and critics of the genre. | |
| 23 | 2004 | Mexican Voices | This issue seeks to understand how nonfiction forms have evolved in regions outside of the United States–specifically, in Mexico. These essays offer the reader more than the just an understanding of the literary traditions of Mexico. |
• Ilan Stavans |
| 24/25 | 2004 | In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction | This anthology features the best writing published in Creative Nonfiction over its first ten years. Culled from the 300 pieces published in the journal, themselves chosen from over 10,000 manuscripts, the stories now published in In Fact showcase the possibilities of the genre in pieces by the famous, and those surely destined to be so. Each author has also included a reflection on the process of composing the particular piece included. (Special issue published by W. W. Norton & Co. to celebrate CNF's 10 year anniversary.) |
• Annie Dillard |
| 26 | 2005 | The Poets and Writers Issue | This issue features many writers whose work crosses the borders between literary genres, from poetry and fiction to creative nonfiction, and illustrates how the lines of division between writers may be disintegrating. The stories themselves also flirt with the idea of crossing boundaries - between life and death, between countries and cultures and languages, and between individuals. |
• Lee Gutkind |
| 27 | 2005 | Writing It Short | This issue features highlights from the online creative nonfiction journal Brevity1, which challenges writers to do their best in fewer than 750 words. |
• Natalie Goldberg |
| 28 | 2006 | Essays from the Edge | This issue features new voices exploring the darker side of life. These essays grapple with a difficult time in each author’s life. | |
| 29 | 2006 | A Million Little Choices: The ABCs of CNF | This issue contains a glossary of concise entries that define and explain the anchoring elements of the genre, from scene and dialogue to acknowledging your sources. (This issue has been republished, in expanded form, as Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction.) | |
| 30 | 2006 | Our Roots are Deep with Passion: Creative Nonfiction Collects New Essays by Italian American Writers | Established and emerging writers reflect on the ways their lives have been accented with uniquely Italian American flavors. The pieces are as varied as their authors, but all explore the distinctive intersection of language, tradition, cuisine, and culture that characterize the diverse experience of Americans of Italian heritage. |
• Joe Mantegna |
| 31 | 2007 | Imagining the Future: Writing and Publishing in 2025 and Beyond | This issue brings together voices from across the publishing spectrum—from novelists and journalists to librarians and editors—all of them speculating about the ways literature and the business of writing will change in the coming decades. |
• Dinty W. Moore |
| 32 | 2007 | The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1 | Creative Nonfiction scoured alternative publications, blogs, literary journals and other often-overlooked publications in search of new voices and innovative ideas for essays written with panache and power. (Special issue published by W. W. Norton.) |
• Carol Smith |
| 33 | 2007 | Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives | The essays collected in Silence Kills present a compelling, and often frightening, look at the lack of communication and understanding currently plaguing the American health care system. | |
| 34 | 2008 | Anatomy of Baseball | This collection of essays about the great American pastime dissects the game one element at a time to try to get at why we find ourselves in the stands or on the field, season after season. |
• Yogi Berra |
| 35 | 2008 | The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2 | Creative Nonfiction again scoured alternative publications, blogs, literary journals and other often-overlooked publications in search of new voices and innovative ideas for essays written with panache and power. (Special issue published by W. W. Norton.) |
• Heidi Julavits |
| 36 | 2009 | First Lede, Real Lead | This issue offers readers a look at the editorial process and the challenge of deciding where a story really begins. |
• Laurie Rachkus Uttich |
| 37 | 2009 | The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 3 | Special issue published by W. W. Norton, book format. |
• Sean Rowe |
| 38 | 2010 | Essays: Immortality | First issue in a new magazine style, no longer a journal format. Essays on "Immortality", interview with Dave Eggers, David Shields "required reading". |
• Richard Rodriguez |
| 39 | 2010 | Pioneers of the Genre | This issue pays tribute to pioneers of the genre such as Norman Mailer and Gay Talese. |
• Doris Kearns Goodwin |
| 40 | 2010 | The Animals Issue | Essays with a focus on animals plus an Encounter with Lauren Slater who talks about her writing process, truth, and why people get so angry with her; Phillip Lopate on the ethics of writing about other people and Sarah Z. Wexler on magazine editors' unwillingness to adopt to new technology |
• Sarah Z. Wexler |
| 41 | 2011 | The Food Issue | Stories about food and our relationship to what we eat—from pork to lasagna, and from pomegranates to toasted grasshoppers. Ruth Reichl talks about differences between men and women (in the kitchen and on the page) and how she's turning her Twitter feed into a book; Phillip Lopate shares an uncomfortable secret about teaching creative writing; and pieces are featured by Lee Gutkind, Robert Atwan, and others. |
• John T. Edge |
| 42 | 2011 | Summer 2011 | Winning essays from CNF and Salt's "The Night" contest, CNF's MFA Program-Off and the Norman Mailer College Writing contest. Plus, Phillip Lopate and Lee Gutkind grapple with the implications of facts; Pulitzer Prize-winner Ira Berkow finds inspiration in the art world; Paul West enters the mind of Nazi turncoat Hermann Fegelein in 'Pushing the Boundaries'; Susan Orlean talks about teaching young writers; and more. |
• Lisa Schamess |
| 43 | 2012 | The Anger & Revenge Issue | The meanest batch of essays CNF has ever published includes a post-divorce bonfire; post-traumatic stress; an assassination attempt; a kidnapping plot; Dick Cheney, and more. Plus, Buzz Bissinger talks about waking up angry, how he chooses his subjects, and why he feels comfortable not being objective; Ned Stuckey-French makes a case for expanding the essay canon; Anthony Aycock stretches out on the page; and Phillip Lopate gets lost in the library. |
• Ned Stuckey-French |
| 44 | 2012 | Spring 2012 | A slew of true stories about navigating unfamiliar terrain: going out into Cairo in niqab; searching for a young man lost in the Grand Canyon; waiting for news about a possible nuclear accident in Ukraine; decoding an invitation in Vietnam; and committing (digital) atrocities in foreign lands. It also explores the line between documentation and exploitation; the legacy of mid-century environmental writers; the small publishing landscape; and the quiet pleasures of quotidian nonfiction. |
• Adam Arvidson |
| 45 | 2012 | True Crime | Wrapped in a noir-inspired cover are true stories of unsolved murders, grave-robbing, identity theft, abduction, addiction, and more. This issue also features an Encounter with Erik Larson, as well as columns on our long-standing fascination with true crime; sex worker memoirs; the ethics of writing about violence; legal help for writers; and side gigs for the nonfiction 99%. |
• Harold Schechter |
| 46 | 2012 | Australia | A special "Australia" issue that covers everything from "bikkies" to bora rings, floods to fires, and Captain Cook to Coober Pedy. Geraldine Brooks talks about how her correspondent years inform her fiction; Robert Dessaix praises the pleasures of gossip; guest editor Leah Kaminsky compares creative nonfiction to general medical practice; and a survey of Australia's contemporary literary landscape. |
• Robert Dessaix |
| 47 | 2012 | Female Form | Features an all-women essay section with seriously beautiful essays about serious topics—entomology, ophthalmology, archaeology, and molecular biology. Plus: Elissa Bassist and Cheryl Strayed talk about how to write like a mother#^@%*&; exploring the possibilities of electronic literature; a roundtable discussion about the intersection of journalism and creative nonfiction; and words to avoid in your prose. |
• Pria Anand |
| 48 | 2013 | Southern Sin | Deliciously degenerate stories about sinning in the South, from cheating at pee-wee football to the murderous jealousy of illicit lovers, the perils of shacking up, and the secret pleasures of arson. Plus: three authors explore the intersection of literature and healing in Writers at Work; tiny truths; a nonfiction sestina; and some stories we regret not being able to publish. |
• Sandra Beasley |
| 49 | 2013 | Survival Stories | A summer issue devoted to hair-raising stories of near misses. Writers reflect on narrow escapes from a plane crash, youthful recklessness, and trains barreling down on the station. The rest of the issue is a writer's survival guide, with notes on making dialogue work, a love letter to literary letters, Roxane Gay on the dangers of disclosure, and a visual guide to the personal essay. |
• Erika Anderson |
Past Contributors
CNF Books
| Title | Description | Publisher | Year | ISBN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Sin: True Stories of the Sultry South & Women Behaving Badly | Personal, poetic and journalistic stories contributed by Southern women. | In Fact Books | 2013 | ISBN 978-1-937163-10-5 | |
| True Crime: Real-life Stories of Grave-robbing, Identity Theft, Abduction, Addiction, Obsession, Murder, and More | Real-life crime stories including an investigation into the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords. | In Fact Books | 2013 | ISBN 978-0-937163-14-3 | |
| I Wasn't Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse | A collection of true narratives by nurses in different stages of their careers. | In Fact Books | 2013 | ISBN 978-0-393-07156-6 | |
| You Can't Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction—from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between | A genre how-to guide from Lee Gutkind, the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction. | Da Capo Press | 2012 | ISBN 978-0-7382-1554-9 | |
| An Immense New Power to Heal: The Promise of Personalized Medicine | Stories and profiles on the sequencing of the human genome and the subsequent development of personalized medicine. | In Fact Books | 2012 | ISBN 978-1-937163-06-8 | |
| At the End of Life: True Stories About How We Die | Twenty-two personal-medical narratives exploring death, dying and palliative care. | In Fact Books | 2012 | ISBN 978-1-937163-04-4 | |
| Becoming a Doctor: From Student to Specialist, Doctor-Writers Share Their Experiences | Original stories about the daily lives of doctors. | W.W. Norton | 2010 | ISBN 978-0-393-07156-6 | |
| The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 3 | A collection of true stories—ranging from immersion journalism to personal essays—selected by Lee Gutkind and the staff of Creative Nonfiction. | W.W. Norton | 2009 | ISBN 978-0-393-33025-0 | |
| The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2 | A special issue of Creative Nonfiction that features twenty-seven essays that originally appeared in alternative publications, blogs, literary journals, and other publications. | W.W. Norton | 2008 | ISBN 978-0-393-33024-3 | |
| Anatomy of Baseball | Twenty new and classic essays about the American past time. | SMU Press | 2008 | ISBN 978-0-87074-522-5 | |
| Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction | Provides writers with the working parameters of the creative nonfiction genre. | W.W. Norton | 2008 | ISBN 978-0-393-06561-9 | |
| Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives | Twelve new essays written by physicians, patients, and family members. Explores the communication breakdown in the current American health care system. | SMU Press | 2007 | ISBN 978-0-87074-518-8 | |
| The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1 | A special issue of Creative Nonfiction that features twenty-seven essays that originally appeared in alternative publications, blogs, literary journals, and other publications. | W.W. Norton | 2007 | ISBN 978-0-393-33003-8 | |
| Hurricanes and Carnivals: Essays by Chicanos, Pochos, Pachucos, Mexicanos, and Expatriates | Originally published as Issue 23 of Creative Nonfiction, this book features fifteen essays that push the boundaries between fact and fiction. | The University of Arizona Press | 2007 | ISBN 978-0-8165-2625-3 | |
| Our Roots are Deep with Passion: Creative Nonfiction Collects New Essays by Italian American Writers | Twenty-one essays written by established and emerging writers that explore the unique intersections of language, tradition, cuisine, and culture that characterize the diverse experience of Americans of Italian heritage. | Other Press | 2006 | ISBN 978-1-59051-242-5 | |
| Rage & Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution | Originally published as issue 21 of Creative Nonfiction, the book includes new essays and an 80-minute CD containing three essays read by professional actors and a panel discussion of the ethical dimensions of the issues raised. Produced in conjunction with Pittsburgh's Jewish Healthcare Foundation, writers tackle health care in America, including problems of patient rights and professional responsibility. | SMU Press | 2005 | ISBN 0-87074-503-4 | |
| In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction | Twenty-five essays, all originally appearing in Creative Nonfiction, republished in honor of the journal's tenth anniversary. | W.W. Norton | 2005 | ISBN 0-393-32665-9 | |
| Lessons in Persuasion: Creative Nonfiction/Pittsburgh Connections | Eighteen essays written by writers with ties to the city of Pittsburgh. | University of Pittsburgh Press | 2000 | ISBN 0-8229-5715-9 | |
| A View from the Divide: Creative Nonfiction on Health and Science | Seventeen essays that attempt to demonstrate the many ways in which aspects of the scientific world—from biology, medicine, physics, and astronomy—can be captured and dramatized for a humanities-oriented readership. | University of Pittsburgh Press | 1998 | ISBN 978-0-8229-5685-3 | |
| The Art of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality | Introduces the genre of creative non-fiction and the process of structuring, researching and writing creative non-fiction essay. | John Wiley & Sons, Inc. | 1997 | ISBN 0-471-11356-5 |
The CNF Foundation
The Creative Nonfiction Foundation pursues educational and publishing initiatives in the genre of literary nonfiction. Its objectives are to provide a venue, the journal Creative Nonfiction, for high quality nonfiction prose (memoir, literary journalism, personal essay); to serve as the singular strongest voice of the genre, defining the ethics and parameters of the field; and to broaden the genre's impact in the literary arena by providing an array of educational services and publishing activities.
The Creative Nonfiction Foundation was incorporated in 1994 and is a private not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. The Creative Nonfiction Foundation is supported by public and private funds contributed by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, as well as by individual donors.
Educational Programs
The Creative Nonfiction Foundation offers a number of educational programs for teachers, students, and emerging writers.
Writing Institutes: Creative Nonfiction holds institutes throughout the year in a variety of locations and offers programs for writers at all levels of experience. Instructors include Lee Gutkind and other well-known writers, teachers, and editors. The institutes often cover a range of themes, from the basics of the creative nonfiction genre to writing memoir to travel narrative. Courses also attempt to emphasize the ethics and guidelines of the genre. CNF hosted the Mid-South Writers Conference in Oxford, Mississippi, in February 2008, and 412: The Pittsburgh Creative Nonfiction Literary Festival in October 2008.
Mentoring Programs: Creative Nonfiction’s mentoring program pairs new writers with seasoned professionals such as Rebecca Skloot and Dinty W. Moore. The goal of the mentoring program is to help new writers 1) develop their technique and approach to creative nonfiction composition; 2) revise, edit and shape their manuscript; and 3) place their finished manuscript with a publisher.
Online Courses: Creative Nonfiction provides online courses on basic techniques for research, interviewing, immersion and reporting as well as instruction on writing personal essays.
Editorial Advisory Board
A number of prominent authors, educators and media figures are members of the Foundation's Editorial Advisory Board, whose task is to help the Editorial Board sustain and guide the editorial mission of the magazine.
External links
- The Creative Nonfiction Website
- Lee Gutkind's Website
- Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction1
- Creative Nonfiction on LitList
- Pittburgh writers
