CREATIVE. NONFICTION. Until recently, “creative” in writing has meant poetry, drama and fiction; “nonfiction” has meant journalism, business writing, academic scholarship and car manuals. So why combine them? Because creative nonfiction offers an invitation to writers that nonfiction often does not. “Nonfiction” has a no-nonsense ring to it, an emphasis on objectivity and logic. “Creative,” on the other hand, is synonymous with original, productive, inventive, not imitative. There’s the promise of play in the word “creative” – and the possibility of adventure, discovery, the soar of language.
Together, “creative” and “nonfiction” produce a synergy that attracts fiction and nonfiction writers alike. At a writers’ conference this year, sessions on creative nonfiction were filled with novelists, journalists, editors, poets and educators, all drawn to the power of these paired words that…