Issue 44 / Spring 2012
44 / Navigations
Navigating unfamiliar terrain
Creative Nonfiction #44 features a slew of true stories about navigating unfamiliar terrain: going out into Cairo in niqab; searching for a young man lost in the Grand Canyon; waiting for news about a possible nuclear accident in Ukraine; decoding an invitation in Vietnam; and committing (digital) atrocities in foreign lands.
CNF #44 also explores the line between documentation and exploitation; the legacy of mid-century environmental writers; the small publishing landscape; and the quiet pleasures of quotidian nonfiction.
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What’s the Story #44
Ok: So it has happened again, just as it does every few years—we’re embroiled in a discussion of Truth in nonfiction. At this point, you probably know the drill: Some writer, ostensibly of creative nonfiction, pulls the wool over our eyes and tells us a fascinating, compelling, enlightening, unforgettable true story … that turns out to be a lie.50 Years After “Silent Spring”
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Navigating the line between documentation and exploitation
"Halevi’s photos have become a staple in the media ethics classroom. Is it the photojournalist’s obligation to intervene on behalf of a stranger?"Blot Out
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of thebelievers to draw their cloaks close round them [when they go abroad].That will be better, so that they may be recognized and not annoyed.A Murderer’s Work
I enter the stands at Las Ventas to find the crowds of seated aficionados punctuated by arena officials in the most ridiculous hats I have ever seen worn in earnest.Desperately Seeking Subtext
It’s January in Hanoi and Santa and his reindeer are everywhere, not just in the hotel lobbies, where (I’d assumed) the artificial Christmas trees, wrapped boxes and prancing reindeer were set up for the pleasure of Westerners.Accidents Will Happen
It’s a ravishing Tuesday morning in May, one of those lengthening days in the sweet rush toward summer when all things seem possible.Sparks
Searching for a 19-year-old lost in the Grand Canyon, a park ranger reflects on the risks young men takeDoing a D’Agata
A writer colleague referring to a document she had written, confessed: “I totally D’Agata’d this.” I couldn’t help laughing. But her comment was unsettling because she meant she had fudged her story, made some of it up.The Quiet Pleasures of Quotidian Nonfiction
Hardly a month goes by, it seems, without some minor (or major) flap about the current state of creative nonfiction, what with authors caught self-aggrandizing, novelists denigrating the other team or reviewers lumping all memoirists into the sensationalist-victim camp.Contract
We’re sorry; we’re currently unable to make this work available online.Is Online Publishing Permanent Enough?
1997–a year situated at the beginning of the dot-com bubble and fewer than four years after the Web became free for everyone to use.My Submission is a Cry for Help
I’m heading to the post office again, the sweat sparked by the outdoor oven of a Tucson summer meandering down my back, the manila envelope in my hand gently thrumming my thigh in rhythm with my expectant stride.Giving Form to Chaos
"My worktable becomes a disaster area when I’m working and I am always pleasantly surprised when art crawls out of that mess."