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July 30, 2011

A Reading List for Writers of Narrative Nonfiction

It will be hard to read these books and essays, and not become a better writer of narrative nonfiction. This is true no matter what genre your writing is situated in: longform journalism, memoir, biography, graphic novel, comics, essays, or whatever hybridic form you've concocted.

Risk these.

About writing:

 

Narrative nonfiction:

 

Fiction for writers of narrative nonfiction:

Posted at 12:31 PM in Culture, Literary Life, Media |

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Comments

Great list. I always like seeing Didion get props. If I could add a favorite of mine, it'd be Buzz Bissinger's Friday Night Lights, which is one of the most absorbing books I've ever read. If you've only seen the show, the book will blow you away.

Posted by: Thejockocracy | July 30, 2011 at 07:53 PM

Oh, I've been wanting to read that one for a long time! Thanks for bringing it up.

Posted by: Anna Clark | July 30, 2011 at 11:05 PM

A really really great book you might check out is Wonderland: A Year in the Life of an American High School by Michael Bamberger.

I love this list and am going to try to work through it.

Posted by: Roxane | July 31, 2011 at 08:42 PM

Oooo, I've never even heard of Wonderland. Thanks for the suggestion. I should throw out this kinda list more often just to lure people into giving me personal book recommendations.

Posted by: Anna Clark | July 31, 2011 at 10:51 PM

A reader suggested a few more titles for the list via email, and I wanted to add them here!

Elmore Leonard: "10 Rules of Writing"
Anne Lamont: "Bird by Bird"
John Steinbeck: "Sweet Thursday" (preferred by this reader to "Cannery Row.")

Cheers, and thanks again everyone for fleshing out this list!

Posted by: Anna Clark | August 02, 2011 at 01:26 PM

Anna, I love your lists. Here are a few additional suggestions:
Anne Faidiman: "At Large and At Small"
Joseph Mitchell: "Up in the Old Hotel"
Eula Biss: "Notes from No Man's Land"
James Alan McPherson: "A Region Not Home"
Most anything by Lawrence Weschler
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction (Lex Williford and Michael Martone, eds) I'm not a big fan of anthologies but I think this one is excellent.

Posted by: Nancy Koerbel | August 04, 2011 at 09:01 AM

Wonderful, Nancy! Those are all new to me.

Posted by: Anna Clark | August 04, 2011 at 03:51 PM

In My Mind's Eye, by Justin Marciano

New narrative nonfiction on Amazon...awesome.

Posted by: Paul | August 11, 2011 at 12:18 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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