The coursework in Workshop for Creative Nonfiction and Advanced Creative Nonfiction was focused on essential elements of nonfiction storytelling.
Over the course of two semesters, we reviewed and analyzed a variety of model works, explored Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, and engaged in regular writing and peer review work.
I produced two long form nonfiction pieces, as well as a series of shorter works, several of which you can read on my blog, hyperpetal.
This piece centers on my experiences traveling in the Middle East during January 2019. It was part of an assignment on how to incorporate interview material into a piece of creative nonfiction.
The process of writing this piece involved conducting an interview with my subject, Doug Baum, and then weaving his thoughts into the overall narrative. The challenge was to accurately represent his ideas and the spirit of the story without crossing the line into fiction.
This piece describes my experiences as the partner of someone who is transgendered. It is a story that I have been working on, in some form or another, for the past fifteen years, and these courses in creative nonfiction gave me the opportunity to approach the topic in a respectful way.
I had long struggled with the question of whether or not this was my story to tell, and thinking through what parts of the experience were unique to me versus what “belonged” to my former partner, helped me to shape the story from my own perspective, without detracting from or speaking for her.
