Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life [Paperback]

Philip Gerard (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1884910432 | ISBN-13: 978-1884910432 | Publication Date: March 1999

In Creative Nonfiction, Philip Gerard offers would-be writers instruction and advice to help them create compelling nonfiction pieces. He uses one of his own pieces as an example, and takes the reader step by step through the writing process.'

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Titles of related interest from Waveland Press: Armer, Writing the Screenplay: TV and Film, Second Edition (ISBN 9781577662334); Brooks, Words' Worth: A Handbook on Writing and Selling Nonfiction (ISBN 9781577660958); Catron, The Elements of Playwriting (ISBN 9781577662273); Catron, Playwriting: Writing, Producing, and Selling Your Play (ISBN 9780881335644); and McCloskey, Economical Writing, Second Edition (ISBN 9781577660637). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books (March 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884910432
• ISBN-13: 978-1884910432
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #898,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"I believe in the writer as a witness to evil, as a reporter of injustice, as a chronicler of human compassion, even on occasion of greatness, as one whose skills illuminate the Truth with a capital T, without irony. I believe it is the job of the writer to put into words what is worst - and also what is best - about us. To light up our possibilities, discover the finest lives to which we can aspire, and to inspire our readers to greatness of soul and heart."
________________________________________
Pocket Biography
Philip Gerard was born in 1955 and grew up in Newark, Delaware. He attended St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware. At the University of Delaware, he earned a B.A. in English and Anthropology, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. After college he lived in Burlington, Vermont, writing freelance articles, before returning to newspaper work in Delaware and then going west to study fiction writing at the University of Arizona writers workshop. He earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 1981 and almost immediately joined the faculty at Arizona State University as a Visiting Assistant Professor and later as Writer in Residence. He remained at ASU until 1986, then taught for a brief time at Lake Forest College in Illinois before migrating to coastal North Carolina.
Gerard has published fiction and nonfiction in numerous magazines, including New England Review/Bread Loaf Quarterly, Creative Nonfiction, Hawai'i Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, New Letters, Arts & Letters, Fourth Genre, and The World & I. He is the author of three novels: Hatteras Light (Scribners 1986; Blair/ Salem paper 1997, nominated for the Ernest Hemingway Prize), Cape Fear Rising (Blair 1994), Desert Kill (William Morrow 1994; Piatkus in U.K. 1994); and four books of nonfiction, including Brilliant Passage. . . a schooning memoir (Mystic 1989) and Creative Nonfiction-- Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life (Story Press 1996), which was a selection of the Book-of-the-Month and Quality Paperback Book Clubs. Maryanne Culpepper, director of story development for National Geographic Television, writes, "It is the manual for nonfiction storytellers. . . Creative Nonfiction is on every bookcase at National Geographic Television."
He has written nine half-hour shows for Globe Watch, an international affairs program, for PBS-affiliate WUNC-TV, Chapel Hill, N.C. , and international broadcast, and scripted two hour-long environmental documentaries, one of which, "RiverRun- down the Cape Fear to the Sea," won a Silver Reel of Merit from the International Television Association in 1994. Two of his weekly radio essays have been broadcast on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
Gerard's Writing a Book that Makes a Difference (Story Press, 2000), combines his dual passions of writing and teaching. His latest book of nonfiction Secret Soldiers (Dutton 2002; Plume softcover 2004) tells the story of an unlikely band of heroes in World War II: artists who fought the Nazis by creating elaborate scenarios of deception, conjuring phantom armored divisions out of sound effects, radio scripts, pyrotechnics, and inflatable tanks. River Run: Adventuring Through History,Nature, and Politics Down the Cape Fear to the Sea is forthcoming from UNC Press.

He teaches in the BFA and MFA Programs of the Creative Writing Department at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, which he chairs. He has won the Faculty Scholarship Award, the College of Arts & Science Teaching Award, the Chancellor's Medal for Excellence in Teaching, the Graduate Mentor Award, the Board of Trustees Teaching Award, and a Distinguished Teaching Professorship, and the Faculty Excellence Award given by the MFA students. The Philip Gerard Fellowship, endowed by benefactor Charles F. Green III to honor Gerard's work in establishing and directing the MFA program, is awarded annually to an MFA student on the basis of literary merit. Gerard has also been writer in residence at Bradford (MA) College and Old Dominion University (VA), has taught at the Sand Hills and Bread Loaf Writers Conferences, and has conducted workshops at the Chautauqua Institution , the Wildacres Summer Writers Retreat, and the Goucher College summer residency MFA program in Creative Nonfiction.
In keeping with his conviction that writers should give something back to their profession, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the North Carolina Writers Network and from 1995-98 on the Board of Directors of the Associated Writing Programs, for two of those years as President. He has been appointed by Governor Bev Perdue to a second three-year term on the North Carolina Arts Council.

Look for his new book of narrative essays, The Patron Saint of Dreams, from Hub City Press in Spring 2012.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Narrow View of Creative Nonfiction, January 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life (Paperback)

This is not a comprehensive book about creative nonfiction. Instead, Gerard has a very narrow view of the field, limiting it almost exclusively to literary journalism. Many types of creative nonfiction (humor, reviews, opinion pieces, personal essays) are all but overlooked in this book. If you are interested in a more comprehensive treatment of creative nonfiction, look elsewhere. I would highly recommend Lynn Bloom's Fact & Artifact.If your primary interest is in literary journalism, you might want to read this book. However, Gerard does not just have a bias towards literary journalism, he also has a bias towards specific topics. Specifically, he writes almost entirely about war, Hemingway, risky activities, and nature. If you share most or all of his interests, you may be satisfied with this book. Otherwise, you might want to try reading something else.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional tool for writers, November 3, 2000

By 

Gary Cohen (Croton, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life (Paperback)

Creative Nonfiction is an invaluable resource for writers of reality-based material. I am a television producer and college film professor who specializes in documentary production. While this book is crafted for a print writer, it is by far the best resource I have found for a complete review of the nonfiction creative process. No film or television how-tos come close to the depth and insight of Gerard's work. From formulating an idea to conducting an interview, from structuring a story to creating suspense, Gerard has articulated priceless insight to a process that is too often intuitive and hard to communicate. A stunning achievement.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent guide book, January 7, 2007

By 

K. Cook (Out in the Indian Ocean) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life (Paperback)

I was using this book as the support text for an online course with Writers Online Workshops, but would have been happy to have the book on its own. The author leads the reader to think carefully about the differences between fiction and nonfiction, and what is unique about creative nonfiction. There are a remarkable number of useful sections including those on form, interviews, and revising. I have followed the chapter on revising and found it to be the most useful information to date to improve my own creative nonfiction writing.