Welcome to the hinterlands: a narrative nonfiction blog: Biter for Writers

November 2008

My Books

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Electric Dreams
(paperback)
"Sometimes your students are the only ones crazy enough to believe in you." —
Electric Dreams
(hardback)
"A can't-miss true story reminiscent of the movie Breaking Away...." Publishers Weekly (starred review). —
— A School Library Journal "Best Adult Books for High School Students" pick for 2004.
— Optioned for feature film by Participant Productions (Syriana, Good Night, and Good Luck, North Country, An Inconvenient Truth)
Skin Game
(a memoir)
A coming-of-age story with an edge. —
— “Superbly articulated…on a par with Autobiography of a Face or Girl, Interrupted.” Washington Post

The Narrative Nonfiction Faction

Gay Talese in the Boston Globe
"There is an art in nonfiction, but the art isn't the creative license one might take as a fiction writer. Rather it comes from digging deeply, researching exhaustively, writing in a way that makes it seem as if it is fiction but is founded in the most reliable of reportage and research."
Personal essay and memoir
-Sandi Wisenberg of Northwestern University's creative writing program says the personal essay should show the writer's mind at work. And that a memoir "tells a story and has reflections."
The Hinterlands Manifesto
-the Hinterlands raison d'etre, with musical interlude
What is narrative?
Mark Kramer offers a thorough definition
The Neiman Narrative Digest
Everything narrative journalism
Lee Gutkind defines "creative nonfiction."
Personal essay? Memoir? We tackle the terms.
More entirely subjective thoughts on nonfiction's finer distinctions.
Susan Orlean on narrative nonfiction
"Literary nonfiction is not simply a flood of information. A lot of these books are basically travels into a subculture, even if it's not a physical journey somewhere exotic. There's nothing more exotic or strange than looking into another person's life – and finding this world that was right next to me. It's a challenging form. So much of its success relies on its execution. Almost anyone can Google a subject and get all the facts. It's the writer who makes something of them."
Creative vs. narrative vs. literary?
My own entirely subjective guide to nonfiction's finer distinctions.
A Brief Introduction to Narrative Nonfiction
From the author Edward Humes's web site.

Save the World (it's all we have)

GreenDisk
-recycle all kinds of e-waste
TerraPass
-Get a pass, offset your carbon
Where do your watts go?
-Kill-A-Watt takes the measure of your electricity eaters
Renewables & Efficiency incentives
-a state-by-state database
Energy Star
-save energy, save money, save the earth
Pick a bulb, any bulb
-From the Environmental Defense Fund, a guide to choosing the right energy-saving bulb for your needs.
Plug-In Parners
- put a plug-in hybrid in your future
Idealbite
-daily tips for more sustainable living
Virtual March against Global Warming
-join me on the march
Treehugger
-dedicated to everything that has a modern aesthetic yet is environmentally responsible

Blogon!

Emdashes
-for New Yorker fans
Fragments from Floyd
-on the edge of the Blue Ridge
Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog
-"Beinge a royale favourite ys not alle yt is crackede up to be"
Ghost Word
-"ethereal thoughts on books and writing"
Green Car Congress
-sustainable mobility
IdealBite
-a daily dose of green tips
La Marguerite
-struggling towards sustainability
Notes from the Road
-a travel blog in words and pictures
The Amateur Gourmet
-deliciously entertaining
The Happy Booker
-writing from the Beltway's edge

From Ideal Bite, today's tip for all you writers out there (my Fiscally Conservative Inner Yankee beat the biters to it--I've been reducing my page margins since forever).

By reducing margins in Word documents before printing, we'll all beat off paper waste.

The Benefits

Paper-use reduction. The average office worker could save 475 sheets of paper per year by reducing their margins from the default setting of 1 in to 0.50 in.
A cash endowment. The savings won't help you retire early, but an office of 100 will save about $500 on paper per year.
Bonus enlargement? If you send this tip to your boss, who knows? You might just get a bigger year-end bonus.