Educational Programs

Writing Institutes

The Creative Nonfiction Writing Institutes are intensive courses focusing on specific aspects of the art and craft of writing creative nonfiction. CNF holds Institutes throughout the year in a variety of locations and offers programs for writers at all levels of experience. Whether you're new to the genre or an old pro, these intensive sessions can give your writing a boost. Instructors include Lee Gutkind, the founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction, and other well-known writers, teachers and editors.

Our Institutes cover a range of themes, from the basics of the genre to writing memoir to travel narrative, and beyond. Courses also emphasize the ethics and guidelines that make the genre both intriguing and true.

These intimate workshops are usually limited to less than 25 participants to ensure that writers get the personal attention their work deserves.

Past Institutes have been held in Pittsburgh, PA, and Oxford, MS. We are always looking for new venues, so if you and your peers have interest in bringing a Creative Nonfiction Writing Institute to your neck of the woods, please let us know!

Educator's Discount

Creative Nonfiction is a great classroom resource for teachers:

• The shorter essay length makes the journal manageable for busy students and compatible with other longer-form texts.
  
  
• Selected issues spell out the art and craft of writing creative nonfiction in a teaching- friendly format that fits easily into a curriculum.
  
  
• The immediacy of recently published work allows professors to teach the newest styles and developments in the genre.
  
  
• The work published in Creative Nonfiction exemplifies the ethical boundaries and framework of the genre, setting a trustworthy example for aspiring writers.
  
  
• Creative Nonfiction includes voices of experience and the fresh talent of newly emerging writers—from creative nonfiction legends like Gay Talese and John McPhee, to Pulitzer Prize winners Charles Simic and Louis Simpson, to rising stars like Lauren Slater and Meredith Hall—and even writers publishing for the first time.
  
  
• Poets and fiction writers are featured regularly in our pages, bringing a special dimension to nonfiction prose and demonstrating the versatility of the genre.
  Most issues of CNF will work well as readers, and many issues include reflections on the state of the genre or a specific aspect of craft. We particularly recommend these issues:

Issue 22, Creative Nonfiction in the Crosshairs
Issue 26, The Poets & Writers Issue
Issue 27, Writing It Short: The Best of Brevity
Issue 28, Essays from the Edge
Issue 31, Imagining the Future

Creative Nonfiction offers a 20% discount on all classroom orders of 10 or more copies. To take advantage of this offer and order CNF for your students, please contact us (or have your bookstore contact us) by phone at 412.688.0304.

In Fact and The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vols. 1 and 2 also make terrific readers; for more information about ordering these books, please contact W. W. Norton directly.

Mentoring Program

Writers at every level can use guidance when it comes to shaping and refining their work. Creative Nonfiction’s mentoring program pairs writers with seasoned professionals who design a program around their writing needs. We offer a range of mentoring packages that fit both your writing needs and your budget.
Our mentors can:

• Help you develop your technique and approach to creative nonfiction composition.
  
  
• Help you revise, edit and shape your manuscript from the first page to the last. Your mentor will review your manuscript and offer a detailed evaluation and plan of action.
  
  
• Assign and evaluate writing assignments crafted to cultivate your strengths and address your weaknesses.
  
  
• Recommend options for publishing your polished work.

Whether you’re trying to publish, find your voice as a writer or receive specific feedback, Creative Nonfiction's mentors can create a program that’s right for you.

Internships

Creative Nonfiction’s internships offer graduate and undergraduate students the opportunity to learn new skills while experiencing life in the world of literary publishing. Because our office is small, interns often can become involved with various projects and gain an understanding of all aspects of running the journal. Typical intern tasks include managing incoming submissions, corresponding with writers and subscribers, filling customer orders, basic office tasks, and may vary depending on current CNF projects.

We offer one or two unpaid internships spaces per semester and require at least a fifteen hour-per-week commitment. In summer, we require a twenty hour-per-week commitment for at least 10 weeks, though we can generally work with interns to schedule around other jobs or commitments.

If you’d like to be considered for an internship, please fill out our application and email it to information@creativenonfiction.org with your resume and a short writing sample.

The Creative Nonfiction Writers' Conference

The Creative Nonfiction Writers' Conference will brings writers, editors, readers, teachers and students together for readings, panel discussions and workshops about writing and publishing. Featured speakers in 2008 will include Lawrence M. Krauss, the bestselling author of The Physics of Star Trek; Corey Powell, Executive Editor of Discover magazine; Virginia Morell, a regular contributor to Science and National Geographic Magazine, and Creative Nonfiction's own Lee Gutkind.

Save the dates: October 2-4, in Pittsburgh, PA!

The Mid-South Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference

The Mid-South Conference offers the chance to interact one-on-one with editors and agents and to focus on various aspects of the art, craft, and business of writing creative nonfiction. For information about the inaugural Mid-South Conference, held in February 2008 in Oxford, Mississippi, please click here.

The 412 Festival

The 412 Festival enables local writers and publishers to forge ties with their colleagues from around the nation. Festival keynote speakers have included John Edgar Wideman, Natalie Goldberg, Mary Karr, Buzz Bissinger and Kathryn Harrison. Other festival guests have included literary agents and editors from Tin House, McSweeney’s, the New Yorker, and Soft Skull Press.

PodLit: The Podcast of Creative Nonfiction

PodLit, a podcast devoted to the creative nonfiction genre and other aspects of the literary world, is a series of ten programs that cover a range of topics, people and publications. These engaging, informative and entertaining podcasts were made possible thanks to a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund.

Programs include:

• Lee Gutkind speaking about why creative nonfiction is A Movement, Not a Moment”
  
  
• Natalie Goldberg reading from and talking about her book The Great Failure
  
  
• C. Michael Curtis, fiction editor of the Atlantic Monthly, giving advice about how (and how not) to write a cover letter
  
  
• Rebecca Miller, executive editor of Library Journal, talking about how to break into book reviewing
  
  
• Dinty W. Moore’s guide to brevity (and Brevity)