In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction

In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction

<p><strong>Welcome to the first anthology to identify and celebrate a new <em>nonfiction</em> form: the Short!</strong></p><p>Something is going on out there. Almost simultaneously, many of our finest writers are experimenting with a new nonfiction form: brief pieces that are literary and personal rather than informational, complete in themselves, and short―very short. Although the form has not had a name until now, the writers who are attracted to it include the known―Tim O'Brien, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Michael Ondaatje―as well as just-discovered voices in the field of creative nonfiction, a genre that is transforming the essay.</p><p>Delights and surprises await the reader in this rich gathering of Shorts. From Diane Ackerman's fascination with hummingbirds, to Andrei Codrescu's idiosyncratic view of nostalgia, to Albert Goldbarth's free-wheeling riff on the universe, each Short―ranging from several paragraphs to 2,000 words―becomes a sharply focused lens on an outer world or an inner sensibility.</p><p><em>In Short</em>, reflecting almost every way in which nonfiction can be written, is for all readers (and writers) who thrive on imaginative play and aesthetic satisfaction. Pick up this book; open it up. See if you can resist it.</p>