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. A tenth anniversary collection of twenty-five narrative essays originally published in the journal, Creative nonfiction, includes Lauren Slater's discussion of her work as a therapist at an institution where she was once a patient, John Edgar Wideman's passionate reaction to the murder of Emmett Till, and John McPhee's personal album quilt.

The very best writing from one of America's most groundbreaking literary magazines. When Creative Nonfiction debuted in 1994, the literary genre it championed was largely the target of skepticism or downright ridicule. But at a time when few editors were interested in the personal essay, the magazine doggedly explored new ideas and fresh modes of expression, and over the next three decades, its contributors pioneered what would come to be known as the "fourth genre." The thirty-two essays collected here bring together some of the finest work Creative Nonfiction published over its seventy-eight issues. Read Pulitzer Prize-winner Charles Simic's boyhood remembrances of the bombing of Belgrade, Carolyn Forche's haunting, lyric catalog of her daily life as she faced down a cancer diagnosis, and John Edgar Wideman's meditation on the photo of a murdered boy his same age--Emmett Till--and how the image haunted him forever. Here, you'll find work by such luminaries as Adrienne Rich and John McPhee, but also essays from more contemporary voices like Brian Broome, Elizabeth Fortescue, and Anne McGrath. With an introduction by Lee Gutkind, Creative Nonfiction's founder and editor, this collection captures the evolution of a genre and the amazing work of the little magazine that helped make it all happen.