Issue #54, Winter 2015
Lost Truths & Family Legends
Our winter issue is full of family lore--the stories we grow up hearing and the tales we, in turn, tell. Like the night we hit the deer, or Dad's close encounter with a serial killer, or the time Grandma saved the village from the Germans ... Every family has at least one story like this--but is it true? (And, if it's a good enough story, does it matter whether it's true?)
Plus, we explore the special challenges of writing about family; writers travel in search of missing stories; and Rick Bragg reflects on the process of interviewing living legend Jerry Lee Lewis.
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A digital edition is available here.
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What's the Story? by Lee Gutkind
From the editor -
Sensualiterature by Brian Doyle
The scratching and hammering and tapping of writing -
Write What You Don't Know by Jessica Handler
What happens when the facts, for any number of reasons, just can't be known?
Table of Contents
From the Editor Lee Gutkind ... read more
Write What You Don't Know Jessica Handler ... read more
Providing the Mortar R. Reese Fuller
Gone Michelle Herman
The Archivist Emma Rosenberg
List Maker Derek Hinckley
The Hart's Long Life Fritz Swanson
Picking Up BBs J. Anders Gilmore
Five Bathrooms and an Outhouse Shelley Puhak
Sensualiterature Brian Doyle ... read more
When Your Co-Author Is Missing Maggie Messitt
One of Many Maggie Mertens
Visiting the Past Sejal H. Patel
Anonymous Jacqueline Kirkpatrick
Disparate Ingredients: Creative Nonfiction Exploring Food & Family Marissa Landrigan
Contributors
Brian Doyle
Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland in Oregon and the author of many books of essays and fiction,... read more
R. Reese Fuller
R. Reese Fuller conducted this interview for CNF. He is the author of the creative nonfiction collection Angola to Zydeco: Louisiana Lives... read more
J. Anders Gilmore
J. Anders Gilmore is a lawyer and college professor. He and his wife, Trudie, are the parents of eleven children. They live in a small... read more
Jessica Handler
Jessica Handler is the author of Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss and Invisible Sisters: A Memoir. Her nonfiction... read more
Michelle Herman
Michelle Herman’s new collection of essays, Like A Song, is due out in March 2015, and a book for children, A Girl’s Guide to... read more
Derek Hinckley
Derek Hinckley is a student in the MFA program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is currently working on a thematically linked... read more
Jacqueline Kirkpatrick
Jacqueline Kirkpatrick lives in Albany, New York. Her work has appeared in Nailed, South85 Journal, and Burningword. She is also an editor... read more
Marissa Landrigan
Marissa Landrigan’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Atlantic, Creative Nonfiction, Orion, Guernica, The Inquisitive Eater... read more
Maggie Mertens
Maggie Mertens is a writer and journalist who lives in Seattle. Her work has appeared in Glamour and The Awl and on NPR, among other venues... read more
Maggie Messitt
Maggie Messitt has spent the last decade reporting from inside underserved communities in southern Africa and middle America. Author of The... read more
Sejal H. Patel
Sejal H. Patel is a San Francisco-based writer and criminal defense lawyer. A former federal prosecutor, she is a graduate of Northwestern... read more
Shelley Puhak
Shelley Puhak is the author of two poetry collections, the more recent of which, Guinevere in Baltimore, was selected by Charles Simic for... read more
Emma Rosenberg
Emma Rosenberg is a writer and editor based in Boston, Massachusetts. She wrote this essay while studying at The Salt Institute for... read more
Fritz Swanson
Fritz Swanson is the director of Wolverine Press, the letterpress studio of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of... read more
