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Dear Friends,

Last week, I stopped by the CNF office for the first time in months, to pick up a copy of the new issue of Creative Nonfiction, which should be reaching subscribers any day now, if it hasn’t already.

It’s been a long time coming—it was meant to have been our spring issue—but I’m really pleased to say that the work in this special all-memoir issue remains fresh and relevant (and, thankfully, COVID-free). I hope it will provide you with some welcome hours of distraction.

Speaking of memoir, CNF’s founding editor, Lee Gutkind, has a new one coming out in October! He also has a full schedule of virtual events (and probably some virtual events at CNF, too—stay tuned for more info about that soon).

And because we’re interested in all kinds of creative nonfiction, check out our new call for experimental nonfiction. We're looking for fact-based writing that is ambitious, pushes against the conventional boundaries of the genre, borrows forms, plays with style and form, and makes its own rules. Deadline is January 11, 2021. Surprise us!

And in turn, we’ll try to keep surprising you. If you’re not already starting your Sundays with our Short Reads, maybe you’d like to sign up now: it’s free, and every weekend you get a short essay right in your inbox. We’ve also started another (free) email subscription, the ICYMI Monthly, which features a curated collection of essays and craft pieces from Creative Nonfiction's archives.

Happy reading!
Hattie Fletcher
-
Managing Editor

P.S. If you haven't already, check out what books we're enjoying over at bookshop.org.

CREATIVE NONFICTION

True stories, well told.

Our long-awaited "Memoir" issue is (finally) here!

It's been a long wait, but the new issue of Creative Nonfiction, #73: "Memoir," should be in the hands of subscribers this week (if not already ... depending, of course, on the mail). 

The issue celebrates stories of the self in the world. Writers find (or, at least, try to find) meaning in familiar as well as unimaginable moments—the loves, losses, and joys that define our lives. Also in this issue: the seductive dangers of self-mythologizing, the memoir-in-pieces, tiny truths, and more.

READ NOW

Want more true stories, well told? 
Subscribe today →

Current calls for submissions


 

WRITE NOW @ CNF

Connect & learn

CNF's webinars and self-guided courses can help you get motivated, find a writing community, and more. Here's what's coming up:

SELF-GUIDED COURSE

  • Writing from Photographs

    Explore the rich possibilities between photograph and experience.

    Class opens Sep 28; enrollment is open until Oct 16. 

WEDNESDAY WEBINARS
Registration closes 24 hours before each event.


 

ONLINE CLASSES

Join CNF's growing online writing community

Since 2011, our online classes have helped thousands of writers tell their stories better. Our 5-week classes offer firm deadlines, a flexible schedule that fits your needs, and feedback to help you keep writing and improving your work.

This fall, we're offering 14 different classes, all designed to help you achieve your writing goals. Here's how we can help you:
 

FUNDAMENTALS—open to all levels.

INTERMEDIATE courses.

ADVANCED courses.

[NOTE: The Foundations of Creative Nonfiction, Introduction to Audio Storytelling and Podcasting, and Writing the Lyric Essay classes are full.]


TINY TRUTHS

Winners from CNF’s ongoing micro-essay contest

Our daily Twitter contest is a great way to get your work into Creative Nonfiction. To join, follow us @cnfonline and tag your submissions #cnftweet.

Here are a few of our recent favorites:

@theinnerzone: Staying indoors, I see the way light moves across walls, changes their colors. The bedroom's closet door that has been open for past six months because my son's LEGO train track blocks it. My mother, sitting still, thousands of miles away waiting for my phone call.

11:07 AM · Aug 7, 2020

@suemell2017: Nine seconds to warm the applesauce for my mom’s morning meds. To replace my disdain for her neediness with a light-hearted care. To see sunlight flicker as wind bends back the spirea branches, setting tiny white petals adrift. The microwave beeps. I go on with the day.

1:52 PM · Aug 13, 2020

@evorbachcollins: Her collection of four-leaf clovers was safely tucked away in her flower press and the plastic cardholders of her Hello Kitty wallet. She had an uncanny ability to spot them, zooming in like a hawk sighting a tiny mouse in acres of grassland.

11:44 AM · Aug 14, 2020

@chesleycade: Called Dad early this morning, as I watched the men across the street cut down a tree. Said he was driving to a childhood lake, to float out on the water—and as we talked, the tree fell. His voice cut out—“Might lose ya, in the hills”—and the men picked up the pieces.

12:38 PM · Aug 25, 2020

DISTRACTIONS

What we’re reading

+ Esquire: Fact Checking Is the Core of Nonfiction Writing. Why Do So Many Publishers Refuse to Do It?
+ Nieman Storyboard: Rewriting the “Hero’s Journey” to Fit a Feminine Narrative
Lit Hub: A Taxonomy of Nonfiction; Or the Pleasures of Precision


From the Sunday Short Reads flash essay email

+ "Neutral Masks" by Eleanor Garran
+ "Depredations" by Margo Steines
+ "His Apple Pie" by Lisa Lanser Rose
+ "Marco Polo in Missoula" by Emily Withnall

Classifieds

Write your personal transformation story for Transformations, a project of the Narrative Storytelling Initiative and a publishing channel of the L.A. Review of Books. Modest payment offered. Work with veteran, award-winning editors. - Submit pitches here.

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The Creative Nonfiction Foundation inspires and supports writers of true stories by providing publishing venues and educational opportunities for a diverse range of creative nonfiction writing and writers; serves as a strong advocate for the genre, helping define the ethics and parameters of the field; and aims to broaden the genre's impact not only in the publishing world but also in the arts, humanities, and sciences.

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