Editor's Notes

Editor s Notes One of the current debates in creative nonfiction is about the "literary" nature of the genre. Until the recent resurgence of the genre, several critics and writers had marginalized literary nonfiction, regarding it as a kind of second-class citizen or literary pretender. Clearly, that's not the way we feel at Fourth Genre. Nor is it the case among the growing numbers of writers, critics, and readers who have enthusiasticaUy embraced creative nonfiction. In reaUty the best creative nonfiction has always been "Uterary"And many current practitioners are resurrecting that tradition. By "literary nonfiction," we mean the kind of work that's centered in the expressive approaches traditionaUy taken by personal essayists and memoirist, and which spirals outward toward aesthetically oriented Uterary journalism and critical writing. As a way offocusing this issue, I'd like to talk briefly about the use oflanguage in this genre. One of the qualities that separates creative nonfiction from, say, feature journalism, or from the nonfiction article, is the way language is employed to enhance the subject. In the "Introduction" to The Fourth Genre: Contemporary Writers Of/On Creative Nonfiction, Robert Root and I write that "we place 'creative' in front of'nonfiction' ... to imply that at its best the form's language is as literary, as imaginative, that is, as that of the other three genres." We both agree that in the best creative nonfiction language is often used for narrative, dramatic, and/or lyrical effects. When Annie DiUard turned from writing poems to writing essays and memoirs, she says she was "delighted to find that nonfiction prose can also carry meaning in its structures , and, like poetry, can tolerate aU sorts offigurative language, as weU as aUiteration and even rhythm. ... It can handle discursive ideas and plain information as weU as character and story. ... I felt as though I'd shifted from a single reed instrument to a fuU orchestra." As DiUard suggests, many poets and fiction writers bring to creative nonfiction the language they've utilized and refined in those genres. And a number of literary journalists—Joan Didion, Tracy Kidder, John Mcphee, Pico viFourth Genre Iyer, to name a few—as well as cultural critics like Jane Tompkins, Ruth Behar, and Marianna Torgovnick, among others, utiUze literary language, as well as cultivating a more conversational, intimate tone. As a result, these writers are able to render complex thoughts and ideas more intimately and personaUy, whüe at the same time making their thoughts and ideas more accessible to readers. This issue contains twenty-two essays and memoirs, in addition to the book reviews, Sue WiUiam SUverman's interview with nonfiction writer Adam Hochschüd, and a transcription of a WGN radio discussion of the history ofthe essay. As you read through the essays and memoirs, you might want to look at the different ways in which the various writers are using Uterary language to elucidate their subjects. Which ones, for example, use language primarily for dramatic effect? And/or to iUuminate an idea, thought, or story? And/or to lyricaUy heighten a subject? In the opening of these notes I implied that the most accomplished creative nonfiction is as "literary" as the best fiction or poetry. I also said that there were other writers, readers, and critics who concurred with that beUef. We're proud to announce that Bret Lott, whose essay, "Toward Humility," in Fourth Genre Volume 1, Number 2 was awarded a Pushcart Prize. It wiU appear in the 2000 edition ofthe Pushcart PrizeAnnual:The Best of the Small Presses. Moreover, Bret's essay was reprinted in the June 2000 issue of the Utne Reader, along with Dinty W Moore's essay, "Free Tibet, Man!" (Volume 1, Number 1). Among the qualities that drew us to these pieces were the pointed elegance and accessibiUty ofthe language employed in both. Congratulations then, to Dinty and Bret. Their work—and the work of aU the writers whose pieces have appeared in Fourth Genre—exemplifies the kind ofcreative nonfiction we're proud to be associated with. L·) MJS ...