Creative Nonfiction Newsletter
for Serious Writers & Readers

Table of Contents

Issue 31: Imagining the Future is on Sale
Registration Open for CNF's Summer Institute: Making Memoir
The Best Creative Nonfiction
Hello Interns
Calling All Editors
Lee Gutkind Talks Robotics
Lee's Calendar
CNF Mentoring

HEY MR. POSTMAN...

Issue 31: Imagining the Future is in the mail and in the bookstores. The seventeen essays in the feature section include anecdotes, astute observation and wild speculation about the future of publishing from across the literary landscape. If you've ever wondered about the fate of the printed book in modern society, this is the issue for you. Contributors to Imagining the Future include Pulitzer Prize winner Ira Berkow; C. Michael Curtis, fiction editor for the Atlantic Monthly; George Gibson, publisher of Walker & Company; Robin Hemley, director of the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa; novelist Heidi Julavits, and Wall Street Journal critic Bob Hughes. Issue 31 is also available through our online store. Issue 31 also includes new work by Denise Shekerjian, Dennis Covington, Judith Barrington, David Applefield, and Barbara Lounsberry.

I'D RATHER BE MAKING MEMOIR

The Five R's of Memoir with Lee Gutkind - This intensive, day-long course will define the genre and present all the basic elements of memoir, including structure, voice, tone, writing in scenes and using background information and descriptions. This course will also include a discussion of ethical issues inherent to memoir writing, as well as tips for marketing your finished memoir, whether book- or essay-length. Working with Fragments of Memory with Floyd Skloot - This course will focus on the elements that lend cohesion and structure to fragments of memory, exploring the writer's technical resources for such work. We will consider how to capture memory; the function of distinctive voice as an organizing principle; the use of dialogue and scenes in fleshing out memory; the quest for truth; and the role freshness of language plays in being honest with memory. The Art and Craft of Characterization in Memoir with Dinty W. Moore - This seminar will explore strategies used by memoirists and include exercises designed to increase the writer's skill at transforming complex flesh-and-blood individuals into words, sentences and scenes through their actions, reactions, dialogue and intimate detail. Workshop with the Godfather, Lee Gutkind - Memoirs-in-progress will be discussed and possibilities for revision identified and analyzed. This workshop is for advanced writers only. To sign up, please visit:

http://www.creativenonfiction.org/thejournal/institutes/july07institutes.htm

CALLING ALL EDITORS!

The first volume of The Best Creative Nonfiction hits the bookshelves this summer, but it's not too early to send your nominations for The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2. The deadline is September 15. Editors are welcome to submit up to five pieces from their own publications. Please send a hard copy to: The Best CNF, Vol. 2, Creative Nonfiction Foundation, 5501 Walnut Street, #202, Pittsburgh, PA 15232.

LEE GUTKIND VS. THE ROBOTS

The American Scholar website is featuring an article written by CNF founder and editor Lee Gutkind, who "questions both the promise and peril of our increasing use of robotics in society." Gutkind recently published Almost Human: Making Robots Think, based on his experience at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute. To check out the article, visit:

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/roboticsquestions-gutkind.html

IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE IN AUSTIN...

Lee Gutkind is giving the keynote address for the Writers' League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference in Austin, Texas, on June 16. You can learn more about it here:

http://www.writersleague.org/events/2007-agent-conf.html

IMPROVE YOUR PROSE WITH THE PROS!

The Creative Nonfiction Mentoring Program teams you with one of our experienced mentors to help you accomplish your writing goals. We offer a number of packages to meet your needs, whether you're a beginner writer, a seasoned storyteller or somewhere in between. Make an investment in your writing career! For more information, please visit our website creativenonfiction.org. Tip: Creative Nonfiction makes excellent summer reading! Whether you're stuck on an airplane or enjoying your front porch or the beach, kick back with a copy of the journal and let our provocative essays engage and enlighten you. If your CNF collection is lacking, feel free to visit our website and order one of our timeless back issues!

ADVERTISEMENT: THE SPLIT ROCK ARTS PROGRAM

The Split Rock Arts Program is the University of Minnesota's summer series of workshops in creative writing, visual art, and design. Held on the Twin Cities' campus and at the University's Cloquet Forestry Center in northern Minnesota, the 24-year-old program is a popular destination because of its promise of intensive study with outstanding artists and writers from around the world. Weeklong writing workshops take place July 22-August 3, 2007, and topics include creative nonfiction, memoir, essay, travel writing, poetry, spoken-word poetry, novel, short fiction, young-adult fiction, and other writing topics. Instructors for 2007 include: Rebekah Bloyd, Wesley Brown, W. S. Di Piero, Carolyn Forché, Patricia Weaver Francisco, Robin Hemley, Susan Hubbard, Tyehimba Jess, Susan Richards Shreve, Sara Mansfield Taber, Frank X Walker, and Catherine Watson. All Split Rock workshops allow for significant one-to-one contact between participant and instructor. Away from the demands of daily life, participants revel in having the time and space to explore art without interruption in one of two unique environments, both of which foster hands-on learning and supportive artists' communities. Twin Cities workshops are host to Open mics and Split Rock Soirées, and Forestry Center retreats offer a more evenly paced atmosphere in which the serenity of the natural world is central to the week's creative work. No prerequisites. Graduate/undergraduate credit and on-campus accommodations available. Registration is ongoing. Register online at www.cce.umn.edu/cw or call 612-625-1976 for more information. Can't make it to Split Rock this summer? Check out Split Rock's year-round Online Mentoring for Writers Program at www.cce.umn.edu/mentoring.

ADVERTISEMENT: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: 

Do you have a great non-fiction book project? LaunchBooks Literary Agency specializes in representing authors of non-fiction and we're currently on the lookout for compelling non-fiction in a wide variety of areas. Please visit www.launchbooks.com to learn more.

ADVERTISEMENT: 2007 MALAHAT REVIEW CREATIVE NON-FICTION PRIZE

The Malahat Review, Canada's premier literary magazine, invites entries for the inaugural Creative Non-Fiction Prize. One award of $500 is given, plus payment at the rate of $35 per printed page upon publication. For complete guidelines, go to www.malahatreview.ca/creative_nonfiction.htm.

Deadline: August 1, 2007 (postmark date).