Creative nonfiction
Stories, courses, and advice for writers
I’ve always loved writing and reading, but my discovery of creative nonfiction—travel writing, personal essays, memoir, and more—is what got me started on the path of becoming a professional writer and editor.
The third edition Tell Your Story Walking, a print/online collection of creative work by Syracuse University honors students and alumni.
Fiction can deliver vividly imagined scenes and plot lines, but there is a special power to a story that is not only well told but has the clear ring of personal truth. The writer is laying him- or herself on the line.
So it has been particularly gratifying to become a teacher of creative nonfiction myself, especially through a course called Tell Your Story Walking that I’ve taught in the honors program at Syracuse University since 2011.
In 2020, I also introduced an SU class in which students edited and produced an anthology, not coincidentally titled Tell Your Story Walking, featuring creative work by fellow honors students. (The class also built an elegant website well worth browsing.)
I took the title Tell Your Story Walking from a song by Deb Talan of the Weepies, who in turn adopted it from Jonathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn. I used the phrase for my class because of my conviction that the best writing is not stationary, not navel gazing, but a process of discovery and engaging with the world.
You can find a few of my short pieces below, along with some writing advice.
Stories and advice
A great practice to adopt if you want to write—whether prose or poetry or songs, fiction or nonfiction.