Online Reading
Before We’re Writers, We’re Readers
Required Reading
Fifteen contemporary writers of creative nonfiction discuss the nonfiction books they remember best from childhood and which influenced them as writers.
I Survived the Blizzard of ’79
Essay
As the snow falls ever heavier and the temperature drops ever lower in the author's hometown, she ventures out into a world of white.
The Marrying Kind
Essay
Married for twenty years, happily divorced for six, the author vowed never to wed again—except in the role of officiant.
Stories That Must Be Told
Introduction
"Inside these pages, you will meet 20 people who are living with mental illness. Be prepared to recognize yourself."
Writing Away the Stigma
From the Editor
"I believe that one of the most important tools we have for combating the stigma of mental illness—by fostering empathy and understanding and helping people appreciate others’ experiences more fully and compassionately—is telling true stories."
Beyond "Crazy": 20 True Stories of Living with Mental Illness
Now available from In Fact Books: Show Me All Your Scars more
The Pit and the Page
"I can’t think about my mother, who is dying slowly and furiously. My grief is an unpacked box of sharp pieces stacked in a dark storeroom; I lug around a catalog of unfinished business."
Success Is Part Talent & Part Perseverance
An interview with Maggie Messitt
"My process between 'note draft' and first draft is fast. What follows? Revision. Re-envisioning. Additional research. And likely some more revision. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat."
Finding the Balance Between Perfectionism & Pragmatism
An interview with Lise Funderburg
"No one's life operates in a vacuum, and to try to write dimensionally requires an understanding of context."
