Advanced Creative Nonfiction, A Writer’s Guide and Anthology, co-written w/ Sean Prentiss (Bloomsbury, 2021)

About Advanced Creative Nonfiction

Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology offers expert instruction on writing creative nonfiction in any form—including memoir, lyric essay, travel writing, and more—while taking an expansive approach to fit a rapidly evolving literary art form. From a history of creative nonfiction, related ethical concerns, and new approaches to revision and publishing, this book offers innovative strategies and ideas beyond what’s traditionally covered.

Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writers’ Guide and Anthology also includes:

·       An anthology of contemporary creative nonfiction by some of today’s most inventive and celebrated writers

·       Advanced explorations into the craft of creative nonfiction across forms

·       In-depth discussion of truth, ethics, and memory

·       Practical advice on revision, editing, research, and publishing

·       Writing prompts and exercises throughout the textbook

“I've searched long and hard for a creative nonfiction text that not only reflects the traditions of nonfiction but likewise its myriad and protean forms. At last, I have it in this smart and clear-headed look at a genre that prizes uncertainty and seeking. Prentiss and Nelson undo traditional and unhelpful definitions of the forms and argue for a more malleable approach, eschewing the narrow rut of truth versus fiction. The vignettes that introduce each chapter are themselves lovely reflections that marry form and experience by these two talented writers. The choices for the anthology reflect the breadth, diversity, and brilliance of many of the most inventive and exciting writers of creative nonfiction today. And as guides, Nelson and Prentiss prove themselves to be the most trustworthy of pathfinders through a heretofore confusing landscape in a practice that is still trying to define itself. I expect this will be my teaching text of choice for years to come.” ―Robin Hemley, Author of Borderline Citizen: Dispatches from the Outskirts of Nationhood, Founder of NonfictioNOW and Co-editor and founder, Speculative Nonfiction