The thirty-two essays included in this collection were published in the magazine, Creative Nonfiction, which debuted in 1994 when the literary genre was still met with skepticism. The magazine helped writers explore the personal essay and bring the genre recognition with its contributors pioneering what would come to be known as the “fourth genre.” This anthology includes contributors from the magazine’s seventy-eight issues, award-winning and contemporary authors such as Brian Boome, Carolyn Forche, Elizabeth Fortescue, Anne McGrath, John McPhee, Adrienne Rich, Richard Rodriguez, Charles Simic, and John Edgar Wideman. “Creative nonfiction was, in many ways, a release,” writes Creative Nonfiction’s founder and editor Lee Gutkind in the introduction. “It allowed and encouraged writers of poetry and fiction to cross genres, reach for new ideas, and find fresh ways of expression.”
