Instances
Stranger than Fiction:
Grad Faculty Member Patty McNair Waxes Nonfiction
Interview by Ilana Shabanov
Life—the material creative nonfiction uses—is never very neat; its paths twist and turn and come out of doors that have been bricked over and then disappear in the gray mist only to start again a couple of miles further on. And creative nonfiction, memoir especially but not exclusively, has wiggle room because of this. Something doesn’t add up, doesn’t make sense? The creative nonfiction writer can simply say that: “I don’t know why my father woke up crying in the middle of the night so often. He just did.”
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Rock This WayA Punk Cinderella Studies the Elements of Writing by Turning Up the Music
By Laurie Lindeen
Fictionary asked rock and roll memoirist Laurie Lindeen to wax poetic on the relationship between music and writing. Lindeen’s book, Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story, charts the author’s own experiences as the guitarist for the now defunct Minneapolis all-girl indie-rock band, Zuzu’s Petals. Her memoir is an honest, at turns humorous, at turns sad, flick-your-Bic-coming-of-age-road-narrative, set amidst the world of cramped rehearsal spaces and dingy music venues.
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Hidden Gems
(And Some Not So Hidden)
By Randall Albers
Fiction Writing Department Chair Randall Albers gives us his list of books that could change your life.
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Where the Wild Voices Are
Writing Classes on the World Wide Web
By April Newman
Since I graduated with my MFA, the economy’s hit the tank. By moving from teaching in the classroom to the Internet, I’m saving cash on professional attire and spending only on cereal and pajama pants. That’s the great thing about this era of the internet revolution: pants are optional. And you don’t have to show your face.
read more...
Damn Right, It's Better Than Yours
Chicago's Lit Scene Fans Its Feathers
Compiled by Stephanie Velasco
Everybody knows New Yorkers are delusional, always thinking they’re the greatest. They think they’ve got the best pizza in the world. (Not a chance) They think they’ve got the best sports teams in the world. (Uh, no, but we’re disregarding the Cubs on this one.) They even think they’ve got the best literary scene in the world. (They’re kidding, right?)
So here’s a guide to the greatest literary scene in the world—Chicago.
read more...
Five Years of Ink
We could tell you how our faculty, alumni, and students-both graduate and undergraduate-are consistently cranking out great work, but one of the maxims of writing is, "Show, don't tell." So absent the space we'd need to list all our publications in literary journals, magazines and Web sites, take a look at the books the Fiction Writing Department's family has churned out in the last five years.
read more...
Grad Faculty Member Patty McNair Waxes Nonfiction
Interview by Ilana Shabanov
Life—the material creative nonfiction uses—is never very neat; its paths twist and turn and come out of doors that have been bricked over and then disappear in the gray mist only to start again a couple of miles further on. And creative nonfiction, memoir especially but not exclusively, has wiggle room because of this. Something doesn’t add up, doesn’t make sense? The creative nonfiction writer can simply say that: “I don’t know why my father woke up crying in the middle of the night so often. He just did.”read more...
Rock This WayA Punk Cinderella Studies the Elements of Writing by Turning Up the Music
By Laurie Lindeen
Fictionary asked rock and roll memoirist Laurie Lindeen to wax poetic on the relationship between music and writing. Lindeen’s book, Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story, charts the author’s own experiences as the guitarist for the now defunct Minneapolis all-girl indie-rock band, Zuzu’s Petals. Her memoir is an honest, at turns humorous, at turns sad, flick-your-Bic-coming-of-age-road-narrative, set amidst the world of cramped rehearsal spaces and dingy music venues.
read more...
Hidden Gems
(And Some Not So Hidden)
By Randall Albers
Fiction Writing Department Chair Randall Albers gives us his list of books that could change your life.
read more...
Where the Wild Voices Are
Writing Classes on the World Wide Web
By April Newman
Since I graduated with my MFA, the economy’s hit the tank. By moving from teaching in the classroom to the Internet, I’m saving cash on professional attire and spending only on cereal and pajama pants. That’s the great thing about this era of the internet revolution: pants are optional. And you don’t have to show your face.
read more...
Damn Right, It's Better Than Yours
Chicago's Lit Scene Fans Its Feathers
Compiled by Stephanie Velasco
Everybody knows New Yorkers are delusional, always thinking they’re the greatest. They think they’ve got the best pizza in the world. (Not a chance) They think they’ve got the best sports teams in the world. (Uh, no, but we’re disregarding the Cubs on this one.) They even think they’ve got the best literary scene in the world. (They’re kidding, right?)
So here’s a guide to the greatest literary scene in the world—Chicago.
read more...
Five Years of Ink
We could tell you how our faculty, alumni, and students-both graduate and undergraduate-are consistently cranking out great work, but one of the maxims of writing is, "Show, don't tell." So absent the space we'd need to list all our publications in literary journals, magazines and Web sites, take a look at the books the Fiction Writing Department's family has churned out in the last five years.
read more...
