Issue 38 / Summer 2010
38 / Immortality
New look, expanded content
Creative Nonfiction has become a magazine! Issue 38 reveals a new size and look, plus expanded content: new essays by Carolyn Forche, Bill McKibben, and others; columns by Phillip Lopate and Richard Rodriguez; a timeline of great (and not so great) moments in the genre’s history; thoughts about the future of literary magazines from the outgoing editor of TriQuarterly; an armchair guide to stunt writing; David Shields’ Required Reading; an encounter with Dave Eggers; and much more.
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What’s the Story #38
So, okay, perhaps as you stood at your mailbox or as you eyed the pile of packages and envelopes you carted into the house and dumped on the kitchen table, you spotted this bright red cover and blinked a few times and wondered, “What is going on?Great (& Not So Great) Moments in Creative Nonfiction
A timeline, 1993-2010The loss of five minutes
For over 25 years, “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” on PBS (later called “The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” and now, simply, “PBS NewsHour”) ended its broadcasts, regularly though unpredictably, with a first-person essay.Is there a future for the literary magazine in America?
It is never good when the man from administration has a letter addressed to you on the desk before him. In such instances, the letter isn’t handed to you but is instead pushed in your direction at the tip of a manicured finger.Balancing Art & Activism: An interview with Dave Eggers
The prolific writer and publishing visionary reflects on the advantages of indie publishing, the evils of email, and finding inspiration in other people’s strugglesJust a Minute: Our Time on Earth
One stifling August afternoon in Manhattan last summer, as I minced my way through a constellation of molten chewing-gum smears, I was blindsided by an impudent question: “Do you have a minute for the environment?”Passing On
Early in the new millennium, I drove north for a day into the hinterlands of Quebec to interview a former French sportswriter and small-time race-car driver named—full name—Rael. He’d been abducted by aliens in the early 1970s and had spent the subsequent two decades raising money to do what the spacemen had instructed him to do: build a giant embassy so they could return in style.The Illusion of Immortality in a Physical Universe
I remember vividly the first time the illusion of immortality confronted me directly. I was in Paris to give a lecture and, having a free afternoon, took advantage of the moment to wander down through the 7th arrondissement to the grand 18th-century estate that now comprises the Rodin Museum.RodinThe Immortal Ones: Plants and Animals That Live Forever
Why them? What twist of fate conferred immortality on a jellyfish—and not us?The Death and Life of Cell Culture
In 1951, at the age of 30, Henrietta Lacks, the descendant of freed slaves, was diagnosed with a strangely aggressive case of cervical cancer. It was unlike anything her doctor had seen.The World Without Us: A Meditation
Yesterday, everything changed, lightheartedly—unthinkingly—I went to the clinic to have “additional films taken,” and after three hours, walked into the sunlight with the image of two black marbles floating in the snow and fog of what had been an ultrasound image of my right breast.Teaching Death
About a decade ago, I decided it was time to confront what seemed to me to be the most important issue a human being can face: death. I decided to do so in the way you might expect an academic philosopher to confront a difficult issue.Imagination in nonfiction
In these innovative if confusing times, when talk of hybrid forms and genre blending abounds, the temptation for nonfiction writers to make their works as novelistic as possible is huge. Since fiction still enjoys greater literary cachet and status than nonfiction, the temptation is understandable.Required Reading
CNF asked David Shields, author of REALITY HUNGER: A MANIFESTO (Knopf), for his top ten, must-read-if-you-want-to-write, can't-live-without, desert-island books.Study in Perfect
I remember only one such sleep following my firstborn’s delivery by C-section. I was under the influence of morphine and a pure, thorough body-exhaustion.Flawless Memory
I arrived at the intensive care unit in the early afternoon. I was shocked to find my mother rising and falling atop a motorized bed with no nurse in sight.Stunt Writing
In 1887, a young reporter and her editor hatched a plot: The reporter should feign insanity to write an expose about conditions in a New York City asylum. It was investigative journalism, but of a sort that demanded an unusual degree of, well, commitment from the reporter, Nellie Bly; she endured rotten food, cold baths in filthy water, sleepless nights and abuse from nurses for 10 days before letting her editor spring her.TheThe Art of the Start
Every writer understands the importance of drawing readers in from the very first sentence—but how do you do that? As this sampling of first lines of first nonfiction books shows, there are as many possible approaches as there are stories to be told.