Creative Nonfiction Newsletter
for Serious Writers & Readers

Table of Contents

--Keep It Real with CNF
--Only 25 Days Until Opening Day ... and a Little Bit Longer Until CNF's Big Baseball Event
--Share Your Pittsburgh Stories!
--Save the Date: the 412 Festival Returns!
--Save a Bundle: Introducing the Back Issue Bargain-of-the-Month
--Announcements

FINALLY! THE BOOK MARGARET B. JONES / MARGARET SELTZER SHOULD HAVE READ IS HERE!

Wondering whether you can pass a novel off as memoir?

Stop wondering: You can't. Ok? You just can't, or at least not for very long. Enough, already, folks.

Wondering about some fuzzier boundaries, like how to deal with recreating dialogue from years ago, or how to use facts effectively, or how to write about your family members honestly but with tact?

Let us help: CNF is pleased to announce the publication of Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction. Covering topics from "Acknowledgment of Sources" to "Writers' Responsibility to Their Subjects" and many, many more in between, this handy guide gives you all the tools you need to write artful AND accurate nonfiction, whether you're just starting out or have been writing for years.
Keep It Real is available in our online store.

BATTERS UP!

Opening Day is just around the corner, and so is the publication of Creative Nonfiction #34: Anatomy of Baseball. This collection of essays by Roger Angell, Christopher Buckley, Frank Deford, Jeff Greenfield, Katherine A. Powers, John Thorn, Sean Wilentz, and many others dissects the American pastime and will make you want to head out into the spring and chase down a few flies.

We'll be launching Anatomy of Baseball in Pittsburgh on May 8 in connection with American Shorts. Contributor Stefan Fatsis, a sportswriter for the Wall Street Journal and the author of Word Freak and other books, will read from his essay about his "stunningly perfect, consummately perfect, why-would-anyone-use-anything-else? perfect" glove. Complete details about the event will be available soon; please check back.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR STORIES ABOUT PITTSBURGH!

Creative Nonfiction is looking for new work about Pittsburgh--the city, its people, its potential--for a project in celebration of the city's 250th anniversary. Pittsburgh in Words will feature 20 classic essays and 5 new pieces to be published online and in print this fall.

The deadline is coming up soon--March 15--but we're looking only for an abstract (summary, overview,
outline of what you plan to write about) and a writing sample (published or unpublished, about Pittsburgh or not). So if there's a Pittsburgh essay you've been meaning to tackle, this could be your excuse!

Submissions may be sent by email or hard copy. Please send e-mail submissions to pittsburghinwords[at]gmail.com. Hard copies may be mailed to:

Creative Nonfiction Foundation
ATTN: Pittsburgh in Words
5501 Walnut Street #202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Complete guidelines are available here.

SAVE THE DATES: THE 412 FESTIVAL RETURNS!

October 2 - 4, 2008, in Pittsburgh. Details will be posted online as they become available.

THE BACK-ISSUE-BARGAIN-OF-THE-MONTH

Creative Nonfiction #22: Creative Nonfiction in the Crosshairs features work by Diana Hume George, Brenda Miller, Laurie Lynn Drummond, Michael Pearson and others; essays from this issue were reprinted in The Best American Nonrequired Reading and nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

And this month it can be yours for the almost unbelievably low price of $2 plus shipping! Not only will you get CNF Editor Lee Gutkind's special dissection of the creative nonfiction controversy, but also Kate Krautkramer's meditations on roadkill and Theodore Weesner's musings about the intersection between basketball and sex, plus much more. This offer is only good until the end of March--you'll have to wait to find out what April's back-issue-bargain will be!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Call for Papers: 2008 Wellness & Writing Connections Conference

Presentations, Workshops, and Poetry Readings
October 10 & 11, 2008 - Atlanta, Georgia
Deadline for proposals: March 15

The Wellness & Writing Connections Conference brings together writers and professionals who see therapeutic value in writing, including personal journals, creative nonfiction, memoir, fiction, drama, and poetry. Inquire about opportunities for a book exhibit and visual art displays. For more information contact John Evans (jevans[at]aiuniv.edu) or visit our web site at www.wellnessandwritingconnections.com

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Are you an author who wants more national media exposure? 

Meet over 100 national media face-to-face at National Publicity Summit, March 26-29 in
NYC. Only 100 attendees admitted.  Go here now: http://www.NationalPublicitySummit.com/?11035

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GOLDFARB FELLOWSHIP IN NONFICTION.
The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, a working retreat for writers, visual artists and composers, is accepting applications for the Goldfarb Family Fellowship for writers of creative nonfiction, a fully funded two-week residency where a writer may concentrate solely on his or her creative work.  Bedroom, separate studio, all meals provided in a community of twenty other artists.  Deadline MAY 15.  For application:  www.vcca.com or 434-946-7236.

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Where Fact Meets Fiction
As any primetime TV viewer or bookstore browser knows, the “CSI” craze is enjoying more than a mere 15 minutes of fame. In fact, as forensic science continues to exert its influence over the television and publishing industries, criminal and civil legal practitioners and the experts they consult are increasingly encountering its effects in the form of heightened juror expectations and more ambitious adversaries.
In recognition of both the positive and negative consequences of this interaction, The Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law will be hosting Where Fact Meets Fiction: National Symposium on the Intersection of Forensic Science and Pop Culture. Scheduled for April 3-5 on the Duquesne University campus, the program is intended to help forensic professionals and the makers of forensic science-driven popular culture arrive at a greater understanding of the significant ways in which they can learn from and contribute to one another’s work, as well as to engage individuals from both worlds in a dialogue about the so-called “CSI Effect” and related phenomena.
For more information, please visit www.duq.edu/factmeetsfiction, or contact the Institute at factmeetsfiction[at]duq.edu or 412-396-1330.

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