Paperback Original

Lee Gutkind, editor

Introduction by Annie Dillard

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.


Lee Gutkind, proclaimed the "Godfather behind creative nonfiction" by Vanity Fair, is a University of Pittsburgh writing program professor and author of Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather.
In Fact book jacket


November 2004 / paperback original / ISBN 0-393-32665-9 / 6" x 8" / 256 pages / Literature/Essays
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