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True Stories, Well Told Creative "" Nonfiction Has Been Keeping It Real for YOUR STUDENT. 20 Years LEADING. When students are immersed in challenging coursework — from rigorous post-AP classes to college-level research — it’s no wonder they go on to the nation’s finest colleges and beyond. Come visit and see why WT is unlike any other school in the region. wenty years ago, a battle Visit to learn more: [email protected] • 412-578-7518 raged within literary circles. True Stories, It was a war of words over the genre known as creative nonfiction. TNonfiction writers were increasingly City Campus, Shadyside Allison Park presenting information in vivid, unconven- Co-ed, Pre-K through Grade 12 Co-ed, Pre-K through Grade 5 tional ways in order to attract a broader www.winchesterthurston.org www.wtnorth.org Well Told readership to a wide range of subjects, but not everyone was buying it. Not, that is, BY MARY S. GILBERT until East End resident Lee Gutkind took matters into his own hands. MELODY FARRIN PHOTOS BY The genre—in which writers employ a technique variously referred to as experien- MCCABE tial reportage, immersion, or true story- telling—already had a distinguished histo- BROS., ry. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Ernest Inc. Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon, and $##!# George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London are well-known examples. By Funeral Homes &" inserting themselves into situations with their subjects and using a first-person nar- rative, those authors and others like them &#$!& made their subjects come alive, communi- cating ideas and emotions along with infor- %%% "!"" mation. SHADYSIDE The so-called New Journalism that originated in the 1960s and ’70s was also 6214 Walnut Street very influential to the evolution of creative Edward G. McCabe nonfiction. Several prominent maga- gift cards can be purchased online at: zines—notably The New Yorker, Esquire Supervisor and Rolling Stone—actually employed (412) 661-6282 schoolhouseyoga.com novelists to cover news stories for them, producing articles that read like short stories. But many journalists scorned the give the gift of idea. To them, creativity implied fab- BLOOMFIELD peace and health rication rather than fact and this year! smacked of sensational yellow jour- 5300 Penn Avenue nalism. Some journalists also Edward G. McCabe, Jr. Issues of Creative Nonfiction (right) resented infringement on their dating back 20 years fill the shelves at turf, and nearly all of them were Supervisor the literary organization’s Shadyside office (412) 661-3134 (above). Owned and Operated by the McCabe Family strip district squirrel hill north hills 8 8 S H A D Y AV E HOLIDAY 2014 8 9 True Stories, Well Told Modern Dog is now open and provides a personal touch to your dog’s daycare, walking, and sitting needs. Stop in and visit us today. shocked by the disregard for journalism’s tradi- 4,000 subscribers around the world (many of 415 Gettysburg St. Pittsburgh, PA 15206 412.365.2009 www.moderndogpgh.com tional third-person voice. whom are aspiring writers) and to bookstores, Academics also fumed at the prospect of Barnes & Noble among them. Whole Foods change. The idea of reducing scholarly Market is a relatively new outlet, brought into research to stories was viewed with alarm as the mix to attract a larger educated audience The recently dumbing down important information. outside academia. The magazine is especially released book True Stories, Well Enter Lee Gutkind with a plan to forge popular in Australia and New Zealand, but Told commemorates the 20th anniversary of peace. A creative nonfiction writer himself, remains firmly rooted in the East End of Creative Nonfiction by featuring 20 of the literary Gutkind in the 1990s was a member of the Pittsburgh, with headquarters above Henne journal’s best essays. English department at the University of Jewelers on Walnut Street. Pittsburgh when he launched the ground- Hattie Fletcher, managing editor of the The magazine is something of a hybrid, breaking literary journal Creative Nonfiction journal, explains that Shadyside has “a nice with essays, columns about the writing life or from the dining room table of his home in energy,” and is conveniently located between the craft of nonfiction, and roundups of book Squirrel Hill. Its mission was to convey “true the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham reviews. Each issue is usually built around a stories, well told,” nonfiction stories that read University. Chatham, she notes, has greatly theme: mistakes, sustainability, women writ- like fiction, enthralling readers with real events expanded its writing program and serves as a ers, and stories of survival are some recent to the same extent as contrived ones. steady source of interns that staff the Creative examples. In addition to the magazine, the “My idea was to make the connection to Nonfiction operations. Creative Nonfiction franchise includes an academics by publishing a journal that looked One former intern is Rebecca Skloot, the online school (with some 250 students annu- boring like other technical and literary jour- narrative science writer who penned The ally) and an independent book imprint called nals,” Gutkind explains. “It was my attempt to Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, about the dis- In Fact Books. make people look at these stories as true liter- covery and exploitation of the HeLa cells that To commemorate 20 years of Creative ature and art-like.” transformed medical research. The book Nonfiction magazine, In Fact Books has According to Gutkind, creative nonfiction topped The New York Times bestseller list and released True Stories, Well Told, which features is “the literary equivalent of jazz, in that it’s a was named by more than 60 critics as one of 20 of the literary journal’s best essays—ones rich mix of flavors, ideas, voices, and tech- the best books of 2010. that Gutkind and Fletcher describe as “the sto- nique, some newly invented, and others as old Many of the journal’s contributors, includ- ries that have stuck with us and that we’ve as writing itself.” ing Lauren Slater (Prozac Diary) and Mark been unable to forget.” The book also includes Initially, the going was rocky, as the Bowden (The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin a new piece by Gutkind called “The Fine Art fledgling publication fought for funding, Laden), have become superstars of the genre. of Literary Fist-Fighting,” in which he offers acceptance, legitimacy, and influence, both his unique perspective on the evolution of his with journalists and inside academia, prima- favorite genre and the heartbreaks and rewards rily in English departments. But it succeed- of literary publishing. ed in making people wake up and under- Gutkind—upon whom Vanity Fair maga- stand that there was and is a market for this zine bestowed the title of “godfather of creative type of writing. nonfiction”—divides his time between resi- Twenty years and 53 issues later, a sea dences in Shadyside and Tempe, Arizona, change is evident. Now, Gutkind says, creative where he is a distinguished-writer-in-residence nonfiction is the fastest-growing genre in the at Arizona State University and a professor in publishing industry and is accelerating in the the Hugh Downs School of Communications. academic world. More scientists, engineers, He still edits the magazine he founded two physicians, economists, lawyers, and govern- decades ago, but spends much of his time lec- mental entities are turning their work into nar- turing and leading conferences and workshops ratives. Even corporations and politicians are around the world to spread the gospel of cre- in on the act. Universities around the world ative nonfiction. Gutkind predicts the power grant degrees in creative nonfiction, and some of story will become even more important and medical schools teach courses in narrative relevant, particularly regarding the complexi- medicine. ties of science policy. “Research shows that the human brain is “Creative Nonfiction changed minds,” he wired for stories, and that people understand says. “It’s why we’re alive after 20 years and__ more information and remember it longer growing like mad.” __SA when it’s communicated within a story,” Gutkind says. For more information or to purchase True Now, Creative Nonfiction is published Stories, Well Told, visit creativenonfiction.org. quarterly, illustrated, and in color. Issues go to Lee Gutkind 9 0 S H A D Y AV E HOLIDAY 2014 9 1 .
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