The Clear Glass Windowpane: Zadie Smith on the Rise of the Essay
Novelist Zadie Smith ponders why so many fiction writers have embraced the essay in an extended Guardian article.  Smith spends much of her time discussing and digesting David Shields’ forthcoming Reality Hunger: A Manifesto — my goodness, that book has b

Memoir as Soviet Social Realism
In truth, we think Maud Newton (the esteemed blogger and book critic) is painting memoir with too wide a brush and setting up a bit of  strawman (straw book?) argument here, but her thoughts on why she writes her life story as a novel instead of as a memoir are provocative, and here at Brevity (way up here, in our lofty penthouse office), we like provocative things.  So have a listen: It’s hard to dispute writer Ben Yagoda’s assertion that the memoir has becom

A Very Normal Prize in Fiction and Nonfiction
Fiction Prize: $1,000 & Publication Nonfiction Prize: $1,000 & Publication Deadline Feb 12, 2010 Final Judges Margot Livesey: Fiction David Shields: Nonfiction GUIDELINES All submissions must be no more than 10,087 words double-spaced, 12 pt. font, with numbered pages and NO IDENTIFYING INFORMATION ON MANUSCRIPT. Entry fee: $20 per submission. Please make checks out to “The Normal School.” All submissions must include 2 Cover Sheets: 1st Cover Sheet must include: a) Title b) Genre c) Name o

Creative Nonfiction Defined: Yes You Can
Oftentimes, at the end of a long day of manuscript sorting high up in the Brevity corporate towers, we will put up our feet, throw some Miles Davis up on the big speakers, pour small offerings of Blanton’s Single Barrel Bourbon, and wonder at people who have trouble defining creative nonfiction. “Really,” we might say to one another. “It’s not a mystery.  What we do is pretty straightforward.  Can you pass the Blanton’s, Mr. Jeeves?” So we were pleased when runni

Brenda Miller: On Form and Distance
You can imagine our excitement last week when Brenda Miller, author of so many beautiful Brevity essays and craft pieces (see here and here and here and