Creative Nonfiction Panel: 2014 National Book Festival

• Report rights infringement
• published: 01 Oct 2014
• views: 3295

What is creative nonfiction? What makes it creative? How do writers of this genre approach their subject matter and tackle some of its inherent challenges? National Endowment for the Arts Literature Director Amy Stolls moderated a discussion with creative nonfiction writers Paisley Rekdal and Eula Biss about their work and experiences with such issues as research, sticking to the facts, points of view and marketability. Speaker Biography: Award-winning author Paisley Rekdal is a writer of diverse scope, publishing work in such genres as contemporary nonfiction and poetry. She has been the recipient of many accolades, including a Guggenheim fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship, a Village Voice Writers on the Verge Award, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, two Pushcart Prizes and a Fulbright fellowship. The daughter of a Chinese-American mother and a Norwegian-American father, her latest work, "Intimate: An American Family Photo Album" (Tupelo Press), blends genres of photo album, personal essay, poetry, memoir and historical documentary to create an innovative literary product. Through lenses of race, family, identity and society, this hybrid memoir narrates the stories of Rekdal's parents, the photographer Edward S. Curtis and Curtis's murdered Apsaroke guide, Alexander Upshaw. Speaker Biography: Eula Biss is an award-winning nonfiction author. She has been the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rona Jaffe Writers' Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award and a 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library. She is following up her award-winning title "Notes from No Man's Land" with a new contemporary nonfiction book, "On Immunity: An Inoculation" (Graywolf). Inspired by the experiences and fears that accompany new motherhood, this fascinating text analyzes the myth and metaphor of medicine and immunization. Biss investigates what vaccines mean for children and larger society, exploring both historic and present implications, and also extending the conversation to meditate on ideas presented in Voltaire's "Candide," Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and other notable works. In addition to writing books and articles, Biss is also the founder and editor of Essay Press and a professor at Northwestern University. For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6384