Philip Gerard

Everyone who writes a novel, a poem, or a memoir almost certainly conducts research along the waywhether to develop a story idea, or to capture the voice, the speech patterns, or the exact words of a character, or to ensure authenticity or accuracy of detail in describing a person, a place, an object, a setting. This kind of experiential research is an art form of its own, and this book is the first to treat it as such. Addressing writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, Philip Gerard covers all the different kinds of archives that might inform creative work, including historical documents, site visits, interviews, and memory. He offers practical tips for drawing on these different types of sources, including such mundane matters as planning and budgeting for travel costs, arranging access in advance, and troubleshooting when plans go awry. And he illustrates how the insights gleaned from research can be incorporated into stories, poems, and nonfiction using examples from a wide range of writers."

A Field Guide for Writers

The Art of Creative Research

Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life

Creative Nonfiction

Gerard provides direction to writers by analyzing a variety of books that have made a difference and distilling the ingredients that make them memorable--such as choosing powerful themes and using storytelling strategies that move people to tears and laughter.

Writing a Book That Makes a Difference

Experience the power and the promise of working in today' most exciting literary form: Creative Nonfiction &break;&break;Writing Creative Nonfiction presents more than thirty essays examining every key element of the craft, from researching ideas and structuring the story, to reportage and personal reflection. You'll learn from some of today's top creative nonfiction writers, including: &break;&break;Terry Tempest Williams - Analyze your motivation for writing, its value, and its strength. &break;&break;Alan Cheuse - Discover how interesting, compelling essays can be drawn from every corner of your life and the world in which you live. &break;&break;Phillip Lopate - Build your narrator–yourself–into a fully fleshed-out character, giving your readers a clearer, more compelling idea of who is speaking and why they should listen. &break;&break;Robin Hemley - Develop a narrative strategy for structuring your story and making it cohesive. &break;&break;Carolyn Forche - Master the journalistic ethics of creative nonfiction. &break;&break;Dinty W. Moore - Use satire, exaggeration, juxtaposition, and other forms of humor in creative nonfiction. &break;&break;Philip Gerard - Understand the narrative stance–why and how an author should, or should not, enter into the story. &break;&break;Through insightful prompts and exercises, these contributors help make the challenge of writing creative nonfiction–whether biography, true-life adventure, memoir, or narrative history–a welcome, rewarding endeavor. &break;&break;You'll also find an exciting, creative nonfiction "reader" comprising the final third of the book, featuring pieces from Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, Beverly Lowry, Phillip Lopate, and more–selections so extraordinary, they will teach, delight, inspire, and entertain you for years to come!

Writing Creative Nonfiction

Writing creative nonfiction intertwines journalistic truth and literary tech-niques to tell a story that is clear, accurate, and exploding with meaning. Philip Gerard artfully guides readers through the entire creative nonfiction writing process, going beyond the technical basics to address topics such as ethics, voice, and structural integrity. In response to the genre¿s evolution, the latest edition includes examples to illustrate how cultural changes have influenced the way writers conduct research, approach writing, and commu-nicate during the production of their projects. Timely, engaging, and poetic, Creative Nonfiction is the practical manual every novice and seasoned writer will want on their bookshelf.

John Jeremiah Sullivan

Karen E. Bender

Michael White

Jason Mott

Kevin Maurer

Wiley Cash

Virginia Holman

Jean Jones

Dana Sachs

Wendy Brenner

Melodie Homer

Marlon Rachquel Moore

Susan Taylor Block

Sheila Webster Boneham

Jason Frye

Robert Anthony Siegel

Emily A. Colin

Emily Louise Smith

Rhonda Bellamy

Gwenyfar

Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams

Ashley Wahl

Nan Graham

Bertha Boykin Todd

James R. Leutze

Daniel Ray Norris

27 Views of Wilmington: The Port City in Prose & Poetry is the latest in Eno's popular series of local anthologies. The book showcases the literary life of one of North Carolina's most popular cities by featuring the works of more than two dozen hometown writers. The result is a mosaic of perspectives about life in the Port City in a variety of genres--journalism, history, fiction, poetry, and more. To date, contributors include Wiley Cash, Nan Graham, Jason Mott, Gwenyfar Rohler, Melodie Homer, Kevin Mauer, Virginia Holman, Dana Sachs, Rhonda Bellamy, Susan T. Block, Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, Emily Smith, John Jeremiah Sullivan, Bertha Boykin Todd, Philip Gerard, and more.

The Port City in Prose & Poetry

27 Views of Wilmington

Profiles the virtually unknown 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, an elite, thousand-man "ghost army" that helped win the Battle of Europe and fought in more campaigns than any other unit in the European Theater of Operations. 30,000 first printing.

The Story of World War II's Heroic Army of Deception

Secret Soldiers

"The Last Battleground presents this dramatic convergence of great events through the personal stories of the individuals who endured them, reporting the war as if it were happening in present time rather than with settled hindsight--to capture the terrible suspense of lives caught up in a conflict whose ending had not yet been written"--

The Civil War Comes to North Carolina

The Last Battleground

Meet the characters of essayist Philip Gerard's world: a misguided sailor and his crew of rowdy teenage boys, an ancient nun, a nurse who believes the government has been secretly spreading bubonic plague, a park ranger, jaded baseball players, a voice on a VHF radio far out to sea, a family of itinerant Mexicans camping dangerously in a dry riverbed, a famous alcoholic writer, a few inexplicable ghosts. Gerard's true stories are shot through with the uncanny and the mysterious. They are not quiet interior contemplations but instead are full of public events, remarkable encounters, and life-and-death moments that reveal and deepen the mysteries of our lives. The Patron Saint of Dreams is a collection of 15 narrative essays that collectively address events in the world through the lens of personal experience, moments when seemingly small decisions have large consequences: enduring the terror of a direct hit by a hurricane, hiking through bear country and suffering a heart attack, hearing a disturbing secret from an old sailor who has kept it for 60 years, discovering an imposter who maintains his dual life long after death. Told by one of the South's most acclaimed and masterful nonfiction writers, these are the stories we live, and the lovely and terrible people who live them with us.

The Patron Saint of Dreams and Other Essays

Writing creative nonfiction intertwines journalistic truth and literary techniques to tell a story that is clear, accurate, and exploding with meaning. Philip Gerard artfully guides readers through the entire creative nonfiction writing process, going beyond the technical basics to address topics such as ethics, voice, and structural integrity. In response to the genre’s evolution, the latest edition includes examples to illustrate how cultural changes have influenced the way writers conduct research, approach writing, and communicate during the production of their projects. Timely, engaging, and poetic, Creative Nonfiction is the practical manual every novice and seasoned writer will want on their bookshelf.

Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life, Second Edition

Nonfiction is in the facts. Creative nonfiction is in the telling. It reads like fiction, but stays loyal to the truth. Philip Gerard walks this fine line with confidence, style and utter zeal, looking at the world with a reporters unflinching eye and offering it up with all the skill of a master storyteller. With the same clarity and passion, Gerard offers instruction and advice to help aspiring and experienced writers create pieces so compelling, so engaging, that readers will never forget them.

Carolyn Forche

Associated Writing Programs

Annie Dillard, Grace Paley, and Lee Gutkind are among more than thirty writers and teachers affiliated with the Associated Writing Programs who use examples from his or her own work to introduce the craft of creative nonfiction.

Instruction and Insights from Teachers of the Associated Writing Programs

Fiction. An 18-year-old driving up to Canada to escape the Vietnam draft, a lonely housewife trying to attract the ghost of a ten-year-old housemaid, a widowed professor of archeology trying to keep his head after a home invasion gone wrong, a 36-year-old accountant tasked with making preparations for the funeral of one of his best friends, siblings coming together to get their polio-stricken younger brother the perfect Christmas gift. The struggles of these characters explore loss, loneliness, estrangement, and surprising ways of coping and understanding themselves in new ways.

Philip Gerard

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