The most inclusive collection of creative nonfiction available, Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: The Art of
Truth is the only anthology that brings together examples of all three of the main forms in the genre: the literary
memoir, the personal essay, and literary journalism. Featuring a generous and diverse sampling of over sixty works,
this collection includes beautiful, disturbing, and instructive works of literary memoir by such writers as Mary
McCarthy, Annie Dillard, and Judy Ruiz; smart, funny, and moving personal essays by authors ranging from E.B. White
to Phillip Lopate to Ntozake Shange; and incisive, vivid, and quirky examples of literary journalism by Truman
Capote, Barbara Ehrenreich, Sebastian Junger, and many others. This unique volume also contains examples of captivating
nature writing, exciting literary travel writing, brilliant essays in science, surprising creative cultural criticism,
and moving literary diaries and journals, incorporating several classic selections to set a context for the contemporary
work. The editor's general introduction and introductions to each of the five sections provide useful definitions,
crucial history, critical context, and abundant issues to debate. Ideal for undergraduate and graduate courses
in creative nonfiction, literary journalism, essay writing, and all levels of composition, Contemporary Creative
Nonfiction: The Art of Truth is also an essential resource for all nonfiction writers, from novices to professionals.
Table of Contents
Credits
Introduction
SECTION 1. LITERARY DIARIES AND JOURNALS
John Cheever
from The Journals
May Sarton
from Journal of a Solitude
Gerald Early
"Digressions"
M.F.K. Fisher
"Paris Journal"
George Dennison
from Temple
Gretel Ehrlich
"From the Journals"
Edward Robb Ellis
from Diary of a Century
SECTION 2. LITERARY MEMOIR
James Thurber
"Snapshot of a Dog"
Mary McCarthy
"Yonder Peasant, Who Is He?" from Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
Annie Dillard
from An American Childhood
Maxine Hong Kingston
"No Name Woman," from The Woman Warrior
Hilton Als
"Notes on My Mother"
Andre Dubus III
"Tracks and Ties"
Kathryn Harrison
from The Kiss
Dorothy Allison
from Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
Andre Dubus
"Lights of the Long Night" and "Husbands," from Broken Vessels
Fenton Johnson
from Geography of the Heart
Mary Karr
from The Liar's Club
Judy Ruiz
"Oranges and Sweet Sister Boy"
Spalding Gray
"Sex and Death to the Age 14"
Tobias Wolff
"A Federal Offense," from In Pharaoh's Army
Harvey Pekar and R. Crumb
"The Harvey Pekar Name Story"
SECTION 3. THE PERSONAL ESSAY
E.B. White
"Once More to the Lake"
James Baldwin
"Equal in Paris," from Notes of a Native Son
Ralph Ellison
"On Being the Target of Discrimination"
Shirley Abbott
"That Old-Time Religion," from Womenfolks
Hayden Carruth
"Country Matters"
Philip Lopate
"The Dead Father: A Rememberance of Donald Barthelme"
Vivian Gornick
"At the University: Little Murders of the Soul"
Jamaica Kincaid
"A Small Place"
Nancy Mairs
"Body in Trouble," from Waist-High in the World
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
"Current Events," from Colored People
Thomas Lynch
"The Undertaking"
Jane Shapiro
"This is What You Need for a Happy Life"
Joy Williams
"Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp"
Ntozake Shange
"What Is It We Really Harvestin' Here?"
Stanton Michaels
"How to Write a Personal Essay"
SECTION 4. LITERARY JOURNALISM
John Hersey
"The Fire," from Hiroshima
Truman Capote
from In Cold Blood
Michael Herr
"Illumination Rounds," from Dispatches
Norman Mailer
"The Turkey Shoot," from The Executioner's Song
Mikal Gilmore
"Last Words," from Shot in the Heart
Joyce Johnson
"November 1987," from What Lisa Knew
Barbara Ehrenreich
"Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America"
Ann Hodgman
"No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch"
Joan Didion
from Salvador
Tom Wolfe
"Yeager," from The Right Stuff
Jon Krakauer
"Summit, 1:25p.m., May 10, 1996, 29,028 Feet" from Into Thin Air
Sebastian Junger
"The Zero-Moment Point," from The Perfect Storm
SECTION 5. THE ART OF THE PARTICULAR: CREATIVE NONFICTION CLASSIFIED BY SUBJECT
NATURE WRITING
Edward Abbey
Memoir: "Havasu," from Desert Solitaire
Sue Hubbell
Personal Essay: "Spring," from A Country Year
John McPhee
Literary Journalism: from Annals of the Former World
LITERARY TRAVEL
Gretel Ehrlich
Memoir: "Lijiang," from Questions of Heaven
Naomi Shihab Nye
Personal Essay: "One Village"
Eddy L. Harris
Literary Journalism: from Mississippi Solo
THE SCIENCE ESSAY
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Memoir: from The Hidden Life of Dogs
Lewis Thomas
Personal Essay: "The Medusa and the Snail"
Atul Gawande
Literary Journalism: "When Doctors Make Mistakes"
CREATIVE CULTURAL CRITICISM
Meghan Daum
Memoir: Music Is My Bag: Confessions of a Lapsed Oboist"
Janet Malcolm
Personal Essay: from The Silent Woman
David Foster Wallace
Literary Journalism: "Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise
