Issue 40 / Winter 2011
40 / Animals
Lions and dachshunds and gorillas...oh, my!
Cattle, centaurs, chickens, dachshunds, gorillas, grunion, horses, humans, mice, monarch butterflies, mountain lions, mutts, racehorses, raccoons, starlings and wood ducks … You’ll find all these, and more, in Creative Nonfiction’s Animals issue!
Plus, there’s an Encounter with Lauren Slater, who talks about her writing process, truth, and why people get so angry with her; Phillip Lopate on the ethics of writing about other people; Sarah Z. Wexler on magazine editors’ unwillingness to adopt new technology; a literary crossword; and more.
Already a subscriber?
Read this issue nowTable of Contents
What’s the Story #40
One Friday night long ago, I was in my office, reading through a pile of unsolicited submissions for a book series Creative Nonfiction was starting, when something happened: I found a manuscript, by an unknown writer-therapist named Lauren Slater, that blew me away.Can Old Editors Master Young Technology?
Whenever a fellow 20-something complains about how many Luddites work in the magazine industry, I bring up Brandon Holley, an editor who spent most of her career working in magazines. While she was editor-in-chief of Jane, it folded—as so many magazines have in recent years—and Holley took a job editing Shine, a Yahoo women’s-interest Web site, which draws 25 million visitors per month.ENCOUNTER: Lauren Slater
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.The Centaur
We have a centaur in our garden, the one my daughter and I planted together last summer, dropping marbles in the soil, setting glass globes atop old fence posts. The centaur has a piece of prime real estate beneath the climbing rose bush, his human head visible, his horse’s hindquarters hidden in leaves, pocked with petals when they fall.The Butterfly Effect
"When the monarchs hang clustered together, paralyzed by the cold, they are clasped to each other, holding the heat between them. They wait for the sun to warm them."Killing Starlings
My ten foot metal ladder was splayed open precariously at the edge of the wetland. I stood high on it, clinging to the side with one hand, trying to open the top of a brand new nest box with the other.Natural Selection
Every once in awhile I look over my shoulder to watch our footsteps fade into the wet sand. They just fill with water and dissolve back into beach, like we were never there.A Triumph of Preservation
Eighteen months after my father died, I was surprised to receive a call expressing condolences for the loss of—how to describe it?—my adopted brother.Dog at Midlife
Sometimes a man buys a house in order to have a dog.Of Mice and Women
With a mug of tea and a mystery I relaxed into the couch. Late night bliss. Halfway through one of those scenes in which jackbooted Nazi officers bang on a family’s door I saw a quick movement on the other side of the room out of the corner of my eye.Charging Lions
From the corral, the calls sounded again and again—loud, deranged by worry, a desperate mother’s cries of distress.The ethics of writing about other people
Whenever I speak in public about autobiographical nonfiction or simply give a reading of my own work, I am invariably asked in the Q-and-A session: How should one deal with writing about one’s family members or intimates?the histories of Jacques Cousteau {a fairytale of the drowned}
In most lakes, a body sinks once water fills the lungs. It goes down down down down down until the bacteria in its gut produces enough gas to float it back to the surface.Living in This Time of Peace
Years ago, I found myself in a small village in Shikoku one evening, needing a place to stay. I had been counting on getting a room at a youth hostel in a nearby town, but when I got there, I found it was full.1 Down: dog
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.People are Strangest
"I simply like the label, 'creative process.' It's a juxtaposition of terms. When you're creative, you're using the spontaneous, energetic, boundless part of your spirit."