Creative nonfiction is an inherently hybrid form, which explores factual narratives through a stylized and often personal lens. “You are an important part of the story,” says Guest Judge Sy Montgomery. “My thoughts and sensations are included as a means by which I welcome the reader to feel what I feel, see what I see, experience what I experience.”
Read on to learn more about Sy’s work and her advice for young writers approaching this genre.
You’ve written in a number of nonfiction-related genres, from magazine journalism to memoir to personal essays. Creative nonfiction is something of a squishy genre: nonfiction-like in subject, but often fiction-like in form. How do you define creative nonfiction? What unique opportunities and challenges does this genre offer?
When I was in college, what I now do was called longform journalism. There are really only two differences between what I do in my books versus the articles I wrote as a newspaper journalist writing for a daily paper. First: in my books, I can write longer than the typical newshole [the amount of space available daily for news in a newspaper] allows. Second: essays, books and memoirs allow the inclusion of what we used to call in derision “the perpendicular pronoun”: I. In straight reporting, you’re supposed to leave yourself out of the story. In memoir, you are an important part of the story. I always think that I am personally rather uninteresting, but my thoughts and sensations are included as a means by which I welcome the reader to feel what I feel, see what I see, experience what I experience.
Your stunning essay “Deep Intellect” is chock-full of octopus facts. But it’s also a beautiful story about your relationship with an octopus named Athena. Tell me about your choice to write in first person. Where does the “I” fit into creative nonfiction?
Aha!! We are both on the same page here. As mentioned above, I am just a lens. Or, seen another way, I am just the simple setting for a beautiful jewel, which is the Octopus’ story.
From tigers in Bangladesh to pink dolphins in the Amazon, your books have had no shortage of interesting subjects and places. But perhaps my favorite book of yours took place in your own backyard with your pet pig, Christopher Hogwood. What suggestions do you have for writers looking for story subjects in their everyday lives?
If you write about what you love, you’ll never go wrong!
It’s hard to publish one’s work! Do you have any suggestions for ways to get more experience as a young writer looking to get their name out there?
My recommendation would be to get published and edited. Submit stories or columns to your local weekly newspaper! That will allow you to get your work read and edited, while also getting your name out there. This is very different from writing a blog. Very few blogs are more than glorified diaries because very few of these get wide readership and NONE of them get edited. Not every editor is necessarily helpful, but all experience with editors (even bad ones) is. You may even get paid for your work! And you can use those clips to write for larger and better paying outlets, both online and in print. [Note from Write the World: If you don’t know your local newspaper and have trouble finding it on Google, this resource could be a helpful starting point.]
What are you looking for in a winning entry? Any tips for our young writers, especially those new to the genre?
I will be looking for vivid details, astonishing facts, and a solid narrative that engages the reader emotionally – make them care. That’s the power of writing! And I know there is a lot of talent out there. I am so looking forward to reading these entries.
About the Guest Judge: Sy Montgomery is the writer of more than 30 nonfiction books for both adults and children. Her book The Soul of an Octopus was a 2015 Finalist for the National Book Awards. Some of her writing has been translated for the big screen, including her book Spell of the Tiger – about man-eating tigers – which was turned into a National Geographic television documentary. To research for her books, films, and articles, she has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla, scuba-dived with sharks, and cuddled with octopuses. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, the writer Howard Mansfield, and an assortment of animals.