Announcing the 2023 San Miguel de Allende Writers Workshop

Join hostess Debora Annino and me, along with other writers, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a Spanish Colonial town that has served as a gathering place for artists and writers since the 1930s. The enchantment of San Miguel delights with its charming colonial architecture, iconic Parroquia, award-winning restaurants, Latin music, and lively literary and arts community. The fourth annual five-day, four-night retreat includes the following:

• Writing Workshops led by yours truly

• One-on-One Writing Consultation

• Transportation to/from airport

• Shared room accommodations in private home and local B&B

• Breakfasts, lunches and dinners

• Walking tour of San Miguel de Allende

• Mexican Art Tour

• Shopping in Mercado de Artesanias

• Latin-music dinner

• Volunteer opportunity with Little Things Matter Foundation to serve local community

* private room $350 additional fee

Airfare not included

Creative Nonfiction Annotated Bibliography

My grad student Andrea Hitefield is doing an independent study in writing creative non-fiction. One of her assignments: vet and compile a list of resources for writers interested in pursuing this topic. Here's her list: 

Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide from the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University. Edited by Wendy Call and Mark Kramer. New York: Plume, 2007. Practical advice on writing nonfiction from the country’s most prominent journalists and authors. Authors from Tom Wolfe to Nora Ephron share from their perspective on the writing process from finding topics to structure. Each chapter is written by a different author, varying in style and tone.

Dillard, Annie, and Lee Gutkind. In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction. New York: W.W. Norton  and Co., 2004.  A book filled with articles from the top creative nonfiction writers as compiled in the magazine “Creative Nonfiction” which is edited by Gutkind. Each chapter is a piece of nonfiction. Subjects and tone vary. There is no instructional content in this compilation.

Franklin, John. Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of DramaticNonfiction by a Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Winner. New York, NY: Penguin,1986. Franklin includes two articles of his own and uses them as examples whilewalking the reader through the writing process from beginning to end.

Gutkind, Lee. You Can’t make this stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative Nonfiction—from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between. Phiadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2012.Gutkind, the godfather of Creative Nonfiction, describes each aspect of writing, from concept to completion. 

Hart, Jack. Storycraft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing). Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Pulitzer Prize winner, Hart, provides methods and mechanics of narrative nonfiction. He uses his own career in journalism as anecdotes but also draws from magazines, documentaries, and radio programs. 

Kidder, Tracy, and Richard Todd. Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction. New York: Random House, 2013. Kidder and Todd cover three styles of creative nonfiction: narrative, essay, and memoir. Drawing on their own experience, good and bad, they show the writing process. Also includes a wide range of authors and a discussion of the ethical challenges of nonfiction writing. 

King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York, NY: Pocket Books, 2000. King shares his personal story of his writing journey including influential moments to his craft. He also includes various tips for writers.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Random House, 1994. Lamott takes the reader through the writing process from characters to plot development. She uses personal anecdotes to shape the reader.

Lopate , Phillip. To Show and to Tell: The Craft of Literary Nonfiction. Free Press, 2013. A Dallas writer, Lopate offers over 40 years worth of experience as a writing and professor in this “nuts-and-bolts” approach to literary nonfiction. Lopate offers instruction for storytellers “like a long walk with a favorite professor—refreshing, insightful, and encouraging in often unexpected ways.” (Amazon.com)

Miller, Brenda, Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. In this work, Miller describes the difference between merely reporting facts as a journalist and doing it in a creative way as literary journalism.

William Strunk and E. B. White. The Elements of Style. 4thed. New York: MacMillan, 2000. An essential book for any writer. Details grammatical rules and styles ofwriting in a near bullet pointed layout.

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well. NewYork: Harper Perennial, 2001. Zinsser presents an easy to read,sound work on writing in general. This book covers the fundamental principlesbut not specifics of writing creative nonfiction. This book is beneficial forwriters of all genres.

Authors of Influence

Recently some Facebook friends asked me to list fifteen authors who had influenced me. I had only 15 minutes to compile my list. Here's what I wrote:

C. S. Lewis
J. R. R. Tolkein
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dante
Lady Julian of Norwich
T. S. Eliot (I apparently like writers who use their initials)
Jane Austen
Madeleine L’Engle
William Shakespeare
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Charles Dickens
George MacDonald
Lauren Winner
George Herbert

Once I had more time to think about it, I traded Lauren Winner for Carolyn Custis James. Philip Yancey probably should probably appear here somewhere too. How would you answer this question?

For Writers

Every writer needs a critique group for encouragement, feedback, motivation, and inspiration. When we write, we know what we mean. And without a diverse critique group, we have no way of knowing possible reader misunderstandings that would leave us saying "That is not what I meant at all. That is not it, at all" (with apologies to J. Alfred Prufrock).

I think a writer's group is to a writer what the organized church is to a Christ-follower. It's imperfect, but it's community. And we need community to be the best we can be. (I prefer organized religion, for all its weaknesses, to disorganized religion, but I digress...)

My belief in the value of writing in community is why I contributed to Word Weavers, a new book from Eva Marie Everson and Janice Elsheimer. It's the story of a successful writers' critique group that tells readers how to form and maintain one of their own. I didn't get a dime for my contribution, nor did I expect one. Nor will I make one from mentioning it here. I tell you that not so you can punch my martyr card, but so you know I have no conflict of interest when I say "I seriously think every writer needs a critique group, and this book will help you get there."