Creative Nonfiction: Representations and Truths
By Brenna Ebner
from the creative nonfiction summer 2021 series
Creative nonfiction is a perplexing genre and while many first think of it as rigid and boring retellings of historical events, that isn’t quite accurate. This specific genre of writing is focused on retelling but in an imaginative way with an emphasis on prose. That is what makes creative nonfiction different from other nonfiction styles of writing. In fact, its focus on prose and writing skills is often shared with fiction and poetry. And that is where the creative part of the genre comes in. The author must find a way to recall and explore in a captivating, realistic, and most of all trustful way since the genre is centered around the concepts of truth and reality.
This can be difficult since we each are biased in our points of views. Plotting and research, however, can ensure a thoughtful attention to detail and (as much as possible) accurate representation. Considering this, readers of the genre get an opportunity to explore many topics, themes, ethics, morals, etc., as we compare lives and opinions and learn from them.
Moreover, a creative nonfiction author tries to stick to what really happened. And while this seems very straightforward, one’s personal truths, experiences, and perceptions may not match another’s reality of a situation as it is solely based on one person’s memory as much as the accompanying research. This subjective take on the objective shows the reader how the world around us may be understood in many different ways and that the truth can take various forms depending on each person’s perspective.
We get questions all the time about what qualifies as creative nonfiction and wanted to jot down our thoughts about this. So what do we think falls into this category? Well, practically anything. Some specific and popular types of creative nonfiction writing include:
Memoirs – narrative writing with the focus on connected personal experiences or a point of view all connected to a theme (e.g., Mean by Myriam Gurba)
Personal narratives – narrative writing focused on one singular event, big or small, that connects back to your personal outlook and opinions (e.g., Queer Brown Voices: Personal Narratives of Latina/o and LGBT Activism by Uriel Quesada, Letitia Gomez, and Salvador Vidal-Ortiz)
Biographies – chronological events in the life of a specific person (not the author) with no focus on a particular experience (e.g., Lady Romeo: The Radical and Revolutionary Life of Charlotte Cushman, America's First Celebrity by Tana Wojczuk)
Autobiographies – chronological events in the life of the author with no focus on a particular experience (e.g., My Autobiography of Carson McCullers by Jenn Shapland)
Literary journalism – factual reporting mixed with narrative writing, often includes research and is similar to journalism but with the prose style of fiction so it doesn’t sound as rigid (e.g., Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea Ritchie)
Even writing such as interviews, nature writing, and sports writing can be included in creative nonfiction. It can take any form such as diaries and journals (check out The Folded Clock: A Diary by Heidi Julavits), lyrics (described as mixing poetry with essay; check out Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine), and graphics (graphic narratives and novels; check out Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel). The sky’s the limit!
Overall, creative nonfiction is a broad and welcoming genre that can encompass so much with so few rules: retell your experience, be it big or small, and do so in an original and expressive way. And with this, we then are able to read about millions of other aspects, opinions, histories, realities, and more. We can find deep and personal reflection taking place, gray areas being explored, and marginalized groups finally having a voice.
We can learn and grow in ways that are enthralling and fascinating as readers, writers, and editors of creative nonfiction, on both a personal and global level. And that is where my own personal interest in creative nonfiction comes from. It’s a powerful way to become more enlightened about not just the world around myself but the individuals who inhabit it and make it what it is. There is so much I have discovered that I was blind to previously and I’m so grateful to be able to learn directly from others such as in our most recent Yellow Arrow Journal RENASCENCE where I got to discover a whole new side to our world and its history that includes numerous cultures, experiences, beliefs, opinions, and ways of being. In any way you experience creative nonfiction, you get to grow yourself and grow with others as writers emerge from the margins of our society and readers and editors become more aware from their powerful works.
And why we at Yellow Arrow focus on creative nonfiction along with poetry. Check out some of our blog posts (every Tuesday!) throughout the summer as we take a closer look at this genre and why people love this writing style.
Brenna Ebner is the CNF Managing Editor at Yellow Arrow Publishing and has enjoyed growing as a publisher and editor since graduating from Towson University in May of 2020. In between this time, she has interned with Mason Jar Press and Yellow Arrow and continues to pursue her editing career with freelance work.
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Yellow Arrow Publishing is a nonprofit supporting women writers through publication and access to the literary arts.