Longman / Prentice Hall

English

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Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: I & Eye
Bich Minh Nguyen, Purdue University
Porter Shreve, Purdue University

ISBN-10: 0321198174
ISBN-13: 9780321198174

Publisher: Longman
Copyright: 2005
Format: Paper; 400 pp
Published: 07/15/2004

Suggested retail price: $71.00
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Featuring some of the most esteemed writers of our time, this new anthology brings together 60 diverse works of contemporary creative nonfiction.

Including memoirs, personal essays, literary journalism, and essays on craft, this collection brings unique insight to the “I” and “Eye” of contemporary creative nonfiction. With noted authors like Annie Dillard, Scott Russell Sanders, Alice Walker, Tom Wolfe, David Sedaris, Margaret Atwood, and Saul Bellow, this text offers excellent models of this emerging field.

  • Organized by themes–“Portraits,”  “Nature and Science,”   “Culture and Society,” and “Creativity and the Arts,” the readings in each unit are subdivided under headings “The I,”   “The Eye,” and “Craft Essays.”
  • The text's introduction provides information on the history and development of contemporary creative nonfiction; background on what comprises personal nonfiction, memoir, and literary journalism; a discussion on the idea of truth; and craft considerations such as structure, style, and the use of literary elements.
  • An introduction to each section provides background context on personal and journalistic creative nonfiction within each subject, with an emphasis on stylistic concerns such as voice and form.
  • Inspired by and drawing upon many of the essays in the text, Appendix I offers 20 substantial and adaptable Writing Prompts, arranged to serve as springboards for student writing.
  • Appendix II Suggestions for Further Reading along with the author bios that precede each piece in the book, points students to first-rate memoirs, essay collections and books of literary journalism, arranged in sections that match the organization of the book.

Preface.

Introduction.

The “I.”

The “Eye.”

The Idea of Truth.

The Use of Literary Elements.

I. PORTRAITS.
 
Introduction.

The “I.”

Bernard Cooper, “Picking Plums.”

Tony Earley, “Somehow Form a Family.”

Lucy Grealy, “Mirrorings.”

Jamaica Kincaid, “Biography of a Dress.”

Le Thi Diem Thuy, “The Gangster We Are All Looking For.”

John Edgar Wideman, from Brothers and Keepers.

The “Eye.”

Beverly Lowry, “Secret Ceremonies of Love and Death.”

Susan Orlean, “Meet the Shaps.”

Tom Wolfe, “Yeager” from The Right Stuff.

Craft Essays.

Tracy Kidder, “Making the Truth Believable.”

Phillip Lopate, “On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character.”

Scott Russell Sanders, “The Singular First Person.”

II. PLACE.
 
Introduction. 

The “I.”

Judith Ortiz Cofer, “Silent Dancing.”

Edwidge Danticat, “Westbury Court.”

Stuart Dybek, “Field Trips.”

Chang-rae Lee, “Coming Home Again.”

Thomas Lynch, “The Undertaking.”

Naomi Shihab Nye, “Thank You in Arabic.”

The “Eye.”

John McPhee, “The Search for Marvin Gardens.”

James Alan McPherson, “Saturday Night, and Sunday Morning.”

Sarah Vowell, “What He Said There.”

Craft Essays.

André Aciman, “A Literary Pilgrim Progresses to the Past.”

Vivian Gornick, from The Situation and the Story.

Jonathan Raban, “Notes from the Road.”

III. CREATIVITY AND THE ARTS.
 
Introduction.

The “I.”

Meghan Daum, “Music is My Bag.”

Dagoberto Gilb, “Steinbeck.”

Wayne Koestenbaum, “Me, with the Stars in My Eyes.”

David Sedaris, “The Drama Bug.”

Charles Simic, “The Necessity of Poetry.”

Susan Allen Toth, “Cinematypes: Going to the Movies.”

The “Eye.”

Saul Bellow, “Graven Images.”

Leslie Marmon Silko, “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective.”

John Updike, “Fast Art.”

Bret Lott, “Against Technique.”

Patricia Hampl, “Reviewing Anne Frank.”

Craft Essays.

Cynthia Ozick, “Portrait of the Essay as a Warm Body.”

IV. NATURE & SCIENCE.
 
Introduction.

The “I.”

Gretel Ehrlich, “The Solace of Open Spaces.”

Edward Hoagland, “The Courage of Turtles.”

Linda Hogan, “The Bats.”

Richard McCann, “The Resurrectionist.”

Floyd Skloot, “Wild in the Woods: Confessions fo a Demented Man.”

Terry Tempest Williams, “The Clan of One-Breasted Women.”

The “Eye.”

Diane Ackerman, “The Psychopharmacology of Chocolate.”

Atul Gawande, “Final Cut.”

Stephen Jay Gould, “A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse.”

Craft Essays.

Annie Dillard, “Seeing.”

Barry Lopez, “Landscape and Narrative.”

Edward O. Wilson, “Life is a Narrative.”

V. CULTURE & SOCIETY.
 
Introduction.

The “I.”

Dorothy Allison, from Two or Three Things I Know for Sure.

Margaret Atwood, “The Female Body.”

Gerald Early, “Life With Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant.”

Maxine Hong Kingston, “No Name Woman.”

Bharati Mukherjee, “Two Ways to Belong in America.”

Alice Walker, “Becoming What We're Called.”

The “Eye.”

Lawrence Otis Graham, “Invisible Man.”

Michael Herr, “Illumination Rounds.”

Susan Sontag, from AIDS and Its Metaphors.

Craft Essays.

Joan Didion, “On Keeping a Notebook.”

Barbara Ehrenreich, “Getting Ready” from Nickel-and-Dimed.

Lee Gutkind, “The Creative Nonfiction Police.”

Alternate Table of Contents: Creative Nonfiction Forms.

Appendix I: Writing Prompts.

Appendix II: Suggestions for Further Reading.

For First-Year Composition - Reader


For Creative Writing - Nonfiction


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