In Brief: Short Takes on the Personal Review

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(More customer reviews)I find this book an excellent companion to Kitchen's and Jones' first book on the creative nonfiction "short" entitled, In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction. The evolution of creative nonfiction and the "short" is apparent in these pages. No longer is it mandatory that a literary journalist or creative nonfiction writer "immerse" the reader in a person, place or thing. These pieces of creative nonfiction show that writers can make a simple journal entry, letter, or, for that fact, an email, stand on its own -- that even the smallest episode in our lives, or simple everyday pictures we've taken with our mind's eye, can have "symbolic realities." As a person who reads and writes prose and poetry, I find the brevity, and yet complexity, of the works appealing. Mary Oliver, who I've enjoyed as a poet, turns a poetic list of items she finds at the beach into a prose piece on beauty and existence. Kimberly Gorall turns a brief childhood conversation with her mother into a statement about womanhood. William Heyen uses one simple paragraph explaining the habits of an insect to an analogy on creativity and imagination. A bright high school senior, Janice Best (editor of Elan), uses an ingenius email format to try to explain why she writes. All of these "shorts" have a similar element -- they start with detail -- an intense focus -- and they end making a statement about our human existence. I have been liberated by the form presented in these pages -- and plan to teach college students using this book as a reader. But I believe any one who enjoys learning about the 'human condition' will enjoy this book. It's a quick read, but the impact of the material here lasts a long time.

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