Creative nonfiction is a literary genre of true stories told with the techniques of fiction and poetry, such as dialogue, scene-setting, description and an inner point of view. Writer and editor Lee Gutkind, founder of Creative Nonfiction magazine, calls it the “fourth genre” alongside poetry, fiction and drama.
It is an umbrella term that covers memoir, the personal essay, biography, narrative history and long-form narrative journalism, plus newer forms such as the lyric essay and the visual essay. The one firm rule is that the work must stay true: writers may speculate or reflect, but they cannot invent facts or break the reader’s trust.
Source: Creative Nonfiction: What Is Creative Nonfiction? by Lee Gutkind
Image: Typewriter by Alexa Mazzarello, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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