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This fresh collection of fact-based narratives--mined from blogs, alternative papers, literary journals, and other out-of-the-way publications--engages and delights with exceptional work about topics from birth to death and everything in between. Stefan Fatsis, author of World Freak, traces the history of his baseball glove; Donovan Hohn chases a spilled cargo-load of rubber ducks bobbing along the Pacific currents; and Pagan Kennedy explores the hidden life of the creator of The Joy of Sex.
Purchase this book alone or as part of the Best Creative Nonfiction box set.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The “L” Word—and The Rest of Us “Outsiders”
Lee Gutkind
Spite
Anne Trumbore
from The Big Ugly Review
Final: Comprehensive, Roughly
Desirae Matherly
from Fourth Genre
Here I Am in Bergdorf Goodman
Sarah Miller-Davenport
from Mr. Beller's Neighborhood
Instead of the Rat Pack
Gwendolyn Knapp
from Hayden's Ferry Review
The Art of Writing a Story about Walking across Andorra
Rolf Potts
from World Hum
Pursuing the Great Bad Novelist
Laura Sewell Matter
from Georgia Review
Moby-Duck: or, The Synthetic Wilderness of Childhood
Donovan Hohn
from Harper's
The Egg and I
Katie Campbell
from Etude
Figurines
Emily Bernard
The Writers in the Silos
Heidi Julavits
from Creative Nonfiction
My First Fairy Tale
Vijay Seshadri
from Open City
A Sudden Pull Behind the Heart
Patrick Madden
from Portland Magazine
The Murder Suicide? of Joseph Kupchik
James Renner
from the Cleveland Free Times
My Glove: a Biography
Stefan Fatsis
from Creative Nonfiction
Teaching the F-word
Hauquan Chau
from Into the Fray
Hi, I’m Panicky
from finslippy.com
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
from madridws.blogspot.com
Cracking Open
Patricia Brieschke
from PMS poemmemoirstory
Range of Desire
K. G. Schneider
from Nerve
The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex
Pagan Kennedy
… By Any Other Name
David Bradley
from Obit
Ceremony
Ander Monson
from The Believer
Anti-Aliasing
Brian Oliu
from Swink
Everything That’s Wrong with Facebook
from philsproof.com
It Was Nothing
Carol Richards
from Alaska Quarterly Review
Shrinks Get It Wrong Sometimes
from shrinktalk.net
George
Stanley Jenkins
from Eclectica
Errands in the Forest
William deBuys
from Orion
Reviews
Gutkind gathers another fresh collection of exemplary essays from a wide range of authors and sources, tackling everything from multiracial love and familial exile to the connection between memory and digital photo manipulation. Relatable situations and eccentric writers keep the stories intelligent but accessible, and often poignant; especially resonant is Gwendolyn Knapp's attempt to rehabilitate her mom’s terminal case of pack-rat fever. Sarah Miller-Davenport provides some levity in a piece on guilty (and expensive) pleasures called “Here I Am in Bergdorf Goodman.” Many accounts run up the old stranger-than-fiction flag, most notably [Laura] Sewell Matter's piece regarding her discovery, on an Icelandic beach, of a page torn from a book; captivated by the “amazingly, almost unbelievably, bad” excerpt, she sets off on a global search for the complete novel. Proving again his chops as an anthologist, Gutkind’s latest collection—which also includes Heidi Julavits, Pagan Kennedy, [and] William deBuys ... —is a 30-run homer, a whirlwind of moods and thoughts captured by some of the biggest talents on the essay and blog beat.
—Publishers Weekly, July 2008
[R]egardless of subject, these selections delight. They kick ass. Their high caliber of writing and deep-seated curiosity invite us inside the cogitations of another thinker, one who is more gifted than ourselves in recounting the intricacies of thought. ... Here's a chance to indulge in a selection of great storytellers of the real.
—Scene, September 2, 2008
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