Editor's Notes

Editor s Notes Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction is a new literaryjournal devoted solely to works ofcontemporary nonfiction, extending from the personal essay—including nature, environmental, and travel writing—to memoir, literary journalism, and personal cultural criticism. In addition to providing writers of the fourth genre with a showcase for their work, we want to present a variety ofperspectives on current genre issues, as well as offer our readers a place to find a selection of lively and inventive writing. One of the hallmarks of this still-evolving form is that the boundaries between its sub-genres are as Mary Clearman Blew says, "as fluid as water." Consequently, you'll find that several writers in this inaugural issue consciously braid narrative telling with fictional and poetic techniques, as well as merging portraiture and self-reflection with reportage and critical analysis. Although the fourth genre encompasses a broad spectrum ofstyles, sensibilities , and forms, its writers share a common desire to speak in a singular voice, as active participants in their own experience. This impulse often overlaps with a need to mediate that experience by serving as a witness/correspondent, thus creating a synergy that's unique to this form. As a result, nonfictionists may write to establish or define an identity, to explore and chronicle personal discoveries and changes, to examine personal conflicts, to interrogate their opinions , and/or to connect themselves to a larger legacy and community. Given that broad context, the style, focus, and structure ofeach work may vary. A particular piece, for example, might by turns be lyrical, expository, meditative, informational, reflective, self-interrogative, exploratory, analytical, and/or whimsical. Moreover, a work's structure might take the form of a traditional ("linear") narrative, or the writer may devise a more disjunctive or segmented shape. And finally, you'll note that the majority ofliterary works in this journal are characterized by a strong authorial presence, a distinctive personal voice, an active desire on the writer's part to explore and discover, a commitment to veracity, and the skillful use ofliterary language. viFourth Genre As you might imagine, several complex concerns guide our staff's thinking about this genre. Our main intent, though, is to emphasize the personal, autobiographical , and "literary" impulses (discovery, exploration, reflection) that generate the kind ofwriting we call the "fourth genre."And while we view this form as broad and inclusive, we believe that the fourth genre's identity is more closely connected to the spirit ofMontaigne's work than it is to matters ofsubject , reportage and /or scholarly research. This is to say that the essays and memoirs we tend to favor are exploratory, intimate, and personal—examples of what poet/essayist Sydney Lea calls "the lyrical essay/memoir." As a result, you'll find that several pieces in this inaugural issue reflect the digressions, meanderings, meditations, ruminations, and speculations that characterize a singular, idiosyncratic mind at work and play. As Montaigne himself wrote, "It is myselfe I portray." In addition, we look for literary/creative nonfiction that extends to larger connections and broader subjects. As cultural critic Marianna Torgovnick says: " All writing about self and culture is personal in that writers and critics find some of their richest material in experience. . . . Often our search for personal meaning is precisely what generates our passion and curiosity for the subjects we research and write about." It is precisely that kind of curiosity and spirit of discovery which characterizes the writing in this first issue. In selecting particular works for the journal, we try and maintain a balance between writing that is serious and informal, rigorous and pleasurable. As writers and editors, we are of course drawn to work that is stimulating and has literary worth, and writing that is wide-ranging in subject and form—familiar at times, and challenging at others. As a result, we actively encourage essays, memoirs, commentary, and reviews by poets, fiction writers, and editors, as well as by current practitioners of the fourth genre. In this issue, for example, we've published work by distinguished writers like David Huddle, Robin Hemley, Steven Harvey, Dinty Moore, Phyllis Barber, and Stephen Dunning; emergent writers such as Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Maureen Stanton, Julene Bair, KeithTaylor...