Tell It Slant, Third Edition

Description

Publisher’s Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.Two award-winning authors reveal everything you need to know to develop your own distinctive voice and craft compelling, creative nonfiction “Tell all the Truth but tell it Slant.”
—Emily Dickinson

With these words, Dickinson offers sound advice for nonfiction writers: Tell the truth but become more than mere transcribers of daily life. Since 2003, Tell It Slant has set the standard for creative nonfiction instruction, showing writers how to move beyond mere facts and, instead, make the most of their own “slant” on the world. This revised and updated third edition offers:

• New and expanded chapters on writing about identity, maintaining a productive work/life balance, and navigating the publishing industry
• An anthology with diverse pieces that range from traditional essay to the graphic memoir
• Expanded discussion of contemporary and emerging literary forms
• New “Try It” writing exercises throughout the book

Whether planning a course or learning on your own, Tell It Slant provides everything you need to know to develop a distinctive voice and to craft compelling creative nonfiction. This book provides the basis for a complete education in nonfiction writing, wherever your classroom might be.

“Tell It Slant is a valuable and comprehensive resource for nonfiction writers, filled with exhilarating examples, powerful exercises, and pure inspiration. Miller and Paola are gifted teachers and writers with endless wisdom to share and a lovely way of sharing it with struggling writers at every level.”
—Dinty W. Moore, author of The Mindful Writer: Noble Truths of the Writing Life Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Preface to the Third Edition of Tell It Slant
Part I Unearthing Your Material
1 The Body of Memory
2 Writing the Family
3 “Taking Place”: Writing the Physical World
4 Gathering the Threads of History
5 The Body of Identity
6 Writing the Arts
7 Glorious Facts: Research and the Research Essay
Part II The Many Forms of Creative Nonfiction
8 The Tradition of the Personal Essay
9 Innovative Forms: The Wide Variety of Creative Nonfiction
10 Mixed-Media, Cross-Genre, Hybrid, and Digital Works
Part III Honing Your Craft
11 The Particular Challenges of Creative Nonfiction
12 The Basics of Good Writing in Any Form
13 The Writing Process and Revision
14 The Power of Writing Communities
15 Publishing Your Creative Nonfiction
16 Putting on Our Editors’ Hats
Part IV Anthology
Reading as a Writer
1 The Fine Art of Sighing
2 Leap
3 Jumping the Fence
4 To Keep an Ear to the Ground
5 Of Smells
6 On Touching Ground
7 Perdition
8 The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee
9 The Coroner’s Photographs
10 Because, the Ferguson Verdict
11 First
12 Math 1619
Appendix I: Good Habits for Healthy Writers
Appendix II: Resources for Writers
Credits
Index
About the Author

Brenda Miller is a professor of English at Western Washington University. She is the author of five essay collections, and her work has received six Pushcart Prizes. Her latest book, An Earlier Life, received the Washington State Book Award for Memoir.

Suzanne Paola is a professor of English at Western Washington University and the editor-in-chief of the Bellingham Review. Awards for her books Body Toxic, A Mind Apart, Curious Atoms, and Make Me a Mother include a New York Times Notable Book, an American Book Award, one of Amazon’s Top Ten Memoirs of the Year, and many others.