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I ended up choosing this book as the central craft text of the Essay Writing course I'm teaching. I like it for a few key reasons:
1. It's edited by Lee Gutkind of Creative Nonfiction, and it was written as a response to the James Frey scandal in an attempt to clearly define the genre of creative nonfiction. Gutkind and the other contributing authors successfully elucidate the boundaries (both legal and aesthetic) that one must be aware of, as well as the creative options one can tease out in the writing process.
2. Because it is incredibly short (with only 1-3 page chapters), it gives me the freedom to supplement this text with essays of my choice, such as Brevity craft essays and essay samples that may or may not have been mentioned in Keep it Real.
3. The explanations of various terms and concepts are clear and straightforward. My students and I will be working with the same vocabulary this semester, and after reading this text, they'll have a good grasp of the basic craft elements of the genre.
4. Overall, it gives a nice brief history of the emergence of the genre from a variety of sources (new journalism, poets/fiction writers who began to write about their lives, etc.).
There are a few places where I wanted the authors to go into more detail about certain concepts, and I felt that there were a few chapters missing on editing/revision/publication, but for my teaching purposes, this book is just right.
1. It's edited by Lee Gutkind of Creative Nonfiction, and it was written as a response to the James Frey scandal in an attempt to clearly define the genre of creative nonfiction. Gutkind and the other contributing authors successfully elucidate the boundaries (both legal and aesthetic) that one must be aware of, as well as the creative options one can tease out in the writing process.
2. Because it is incredibly short (with only 1-3 page chapters), it gives me the freedom to supplement this text with essays of my choice, such as Brevity craft essays and essay samples that may or may not have been mentioned in Keep it Real.
3. The explanations of various terms and concepts are clear and straightforward. My students and I will be working with the same vocabulary this semester, and after reading this text, they'll have a good grasp of the basic craft elements of the genre.
4. Overall, it gives a nice brief history of the emergence of the genre from a variety of sources (new journalism, poets/fiction writers who began to write about their lives, etc.).
There are a few places where I wanted the authors to go into more detail about certain concepts, and I felt that there were a few chapters missing on editing/revision/publication, but for my teaching purposes, this book is just right.