Tell It Slant : Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction

by Miller, Brenda; Paola, Suzanne

• ISBN13: 9780072512786
• ISBN10: 0072512784
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

Demonstrating the range of creative nonfiction from memoir to travel writing to the lyric essay,Tell It Slantcombines practical guidance with an illustrative anthology of 34 essays from Margaret Atwood, David Sedaris, E.B. White, Virginia Woolf, and others. The result is a stimulating collection of writing and activities that makes it easy and enjoyable for students to begin to write and to try new modes of writing.

Author Biography

Suzanne Paola is a professor at Western Washington University. Brenda Miller is an associate professor of English at Western Washington University.

Table of Contents

Preface: How to Use This Book	x
Introduction: Where to Begin?	1	(7)
PART I The Foundations of Creative Nonfiction
The Basics of Good Writing in Any Form	8	(20)
The Particular Challenges of Creative Nonfiction	28	(22)
PART II Unearthing Your Material
The Body of Memory	50	(16)
Writing the Family	66	(11)
``Taking Place'': Writing the Physical World	77	(15)
Gathering the Threads of History	92	(9)
Writing the Arts	101	(11)
Writing the Larger World	112	(15)
PART III The Forms of Creative Nonfiction
The Personal Essay	127	(18)
The Lyric Essay	145	(16)
The Basics of Personal Reportage	161	(20)
The Writing Process and Revision	181	(10)
Epilogue: Last Words	191	(5)
PART IV Anthology
Preface to the Anthology	196	(3)
``Nine Beginnings''	199	(6)
Atwood, Margaret
``My Children Explain the Big Issues''	205	(3)
Baker, Will
``Notes of a Native Son''	208	(18)
Baldwin, James
``So Long Ago''	226	(8)
Bausch, Richard
``The Fourth State of Matter''	234	(16)
Beard, Jo Ann
``An Entrance to the Woods''	250	(11)
Berry, Wendell
``The Fine Art of Sighing''	261	(2)
Cooper, Bernard
``Goodbye to All That''	263	(9)
Didion, Joan
``Total Eclipse''	272	(12)
Dillard, Annie
``The Mickey Mantle Koan''	284	(12)
Duncan, David James
``The Measure of My Powers'' and ``A Thing Shared''	296	(5)
Fisher, M. F. K.
``After Yitzl''	301	(13)
Goldbarth, Albert
``Still Life: Notes on Pierre Bonnard and My Mother's Ninetieth Birthday''	314	(11)
Gordon, Mary
``Reading History to My Mother''	325	(11)
Hemley, Robin
``Where Worlds Collide''	336	(12)
Iyer, Pico
``No Name Woman''	348	(11)
Kingston, Maxine Hong
``Why I Don't Meditate''	359	(4)
Lamott, Anne
``File and Sandpaper'' and ``Screw''	363	(1)
Morabito, Fabio
``A Four-Hundred-Year-Old Woman''	369	(5)
Mukherjee, Bharati
excerpts from ``A Brief Natural History of the Plastic Pink Flamingo''	374	(4)
Price, Jennifer
``The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee''	378	(4)
Rekdal, Paisley
``Three Voices''	382	(2)
Rider, Bhanu Kapil
``Buckeye''	384	(3)
Sanders, Scott Russell
``The Drama Bug''	387	(8)
Sedaris, David
``The Knife''	395	(8)
Selzer, Richard
``Three Fragments''	403	(2)
Simic, Charles
``The Coroner's Photographs''	405	(5)
Staples, Brent
excerpts from ``A Postcard Memoir''	410	(6)
Sutin, Lawrence
``Becoming What We're Called''	416	(4)
Walker, Alice
``Afternoon of an American Boy''	420	(6)
White, E. B.
``The Clan of One-Breasted Women''	426	(8)
Williams, Terry Tempest
``The Death of the Moth''	434
Woolf, Virginia
Credits	1	(1)
Index	1