Creative Nonfiction Newsletter
for Serious Writers & Readers

Table of Contents

-- Have a Blast While Taking Your Writing to the Next Level in Oxford, Mississippi!
-- CNF Keeps It Real
-- Pittsburgh in Words: Call for Abstracts
-- We're Back from New York
-- New Faces at CNF!
-- Announcements

TICK, TICK, TICK . . .

Time is running out to register for the Mid-South Creative Nonfiction Writers' Conference! This event, which takes place in Oxford, Mississippi, from February 29 to March 2, will offer a rare opportunity for writers interested in travel narrative and memoir to hear about what editors look for and how they choose the work they publish.

Featured speakers will include internationally recognized magazine expert Samir Husni, Journalism Department chair at The University of Mississippi, and editors from Houghton-Mifflin, Doubleday, Conde Nast Traveler, Slate, and Oxford American, as well as CNF Editor Lee Gutkind.

Participants will also have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with editors and agents and to network with all conference participants at social events.

Plus, special pre-conference workshops focusing on various aspects of the art, craft and business of writing will be offered on Thursday, February 28 and Friday, February 29.

To learn more and sign up, visit the conference page.

THE ABCS OF CNF: FROM "ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF SOURCES" TO "WRITERS' RESPONSIBILITIES TO THEIR SUBJECTS"

We’re very pleased to announce the publication of Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know about Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction, edited by Lee Gutkind and out this month from W.W. Norton. This essential handbook contains much of the material from last year’s sold-out Issue #29: A Million Little Choices, plus ten new glossary entries about topics including forewords and afterwords, the benefits and dangers of psychoanalyzing characters, the lyric essay, and keeping it brief.

Every writer should have this guide to both the "creative" and the "nonfiction" parts of writing in the genre. Keep It Real is on sale now in our online store!

HAVE A STORY TO TELL ABOUT PITTSBURGH? NOW’S YOUR CHANCE!

We're looking for new essays about Pittsburgh, its people, its heritage and its potential. These essays will be published online and in print in fall 20080 as part of "Pittsburgh in Words," a celebration of the city's 250th anniversary.

Essays will be selected through a competitive process. The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2008. Please send a one-page abstract of the proposed essay, accompanied by a writing sample of no more than ten (10) pages and a cover letter with complete contact information to:

Creative Nonfiction
attn: Pittsburgh in Words
5501 Walnut Street, suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Electronic submissions may be sent to pittsburghinwords[at]gmail.com

In addition to publication, writers whose essays are selected will receive mentoring from CNF editors and a scholarship for a Creative Nonfiction Writing Institute in fall 2008.

Examples of the type of work that will be selected for "Pittsburgh in Words" may be found in CNF Issue 15, "Lessons in Persuasion," which included essays by well-known Pittsburgh writers such as Peter S. Beagle, Diane Ackerman, and Hilary Masters. Other examples might include excerpts from Annie Dillard's An American Childhood, John Edgar Wideman's Hoop Roots, and Gerald Stern's What I Can’t Bear Losing: Notes from a Life.

Please share this announcement with anyone who might be interested in submitting work.

"Pittsburgh in Words" is generously funded by a grant from the Heinz Endowments.

WE WENT TO NEW YORK . . .

And we didn't even get a lousy T-shirt. But we did get to meet a lot of our readers and made some new friends, as well. A big welcome to all, and thanks to those of you who found our table amid the Bookfair madness!

We also hosted a special event honoring the winners of the first-ever Creative Nonfiction/W.W. Norton MFA Program-Off. The winners read from their work at the Ding Dong Lounge; the finalists were Jennifer McClung, Joanna Eleftheriou, Sierra Bellows, and Margaret MacInnis. The winner, Amy Andrews, will have her essay, "Cantata 147: The Final Chorale," published in The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume 3.

Carolyn Kellogg blogged about the reading in the LA Times "Jacket Copy" blog. Click here to read the whole story. (You'll notice that we got mentioned ahead of Jonathan Lethem…)

A GRAND WELCOME!

Hello to CNF's new Office Manager, Jack Mathews, and to Stephen Knezovich, who is joining the staff as an assistant editor. We're looking forward to working with both of them—and you'll probably be hearing from them soon!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Want Publicity in Major Magazines and Newspapers? 

Join Us Wednesday, Feb. 13th for a free telephone seminar and discover how to get major print publicity.  http://www.getmajorpress.com/call011