Book description
Award winning essayist Scott Russell Sanders once compared the art of
essay writing to "the pursuit of mental rabbits"Â-a rambling
through thickets of thought in search of some brief glimmer of fuzzy
truth. While some people persist in the belief that essays are stuffy
and antiquated, the truth is that the personal essay is an
ever-changing creative medium that provides an ideal vehicle for
satisfying the human urge to document truths as we experience them and
share them with othersÂ-to capture a bit of life on paper.
Crafting the Personal Essay is designed to help you explore the
flexibility and power of the personal essay in your own writing. This
hands-on, creativity-expanding guide will help you infuse your
nonfiction with honesty, personality, and energy. You'll discover:
- An exploration of the basics of essay writing
- Ways to
step back and scrutinize your experiences in order to separate out
what may be fresh, powerful, surprising or fascinating to a
reader
- How to move past private "journaling" and
write for an audience
- How to write eight different types
of essays including memoir, travel, humor, and nature essays among
others
- Instruction for revision and strategies for getting
published
Brimming with helpful examples, exercises, and
sample essays, this indispensable guide will help your personal essays
transcend the merely private to become powerfully universal.
Dinty W. Moore earned a BA in writing from the University of
Pittsburgh, worked briefly as a journalist, and also served short
stints as a documentary filmmaker, modern dance performer, zookeeper,
and Greenwich Village waiter. It was only after failing at each of
these professions that he went on to earn an MFA in fiction writing
from Louisiana State University. He has guest taught creative
nonfiction seminars across the United States and in Europe. In
addition to editing the internet journal, Brevity (www.
brevitymag. com), he is on the editorial board of Creative
Nonfiction and is coordinating editor for the annual anthology
Best Creative Nonfiction (W. W. Norton). Moore teaches
writing at Ohio University and serves on the Board of Directors of The
Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
