I teach with this book and love the essays. My only criticism is that there are very few writers who aren't white. I have to supplement the readings with online essays. I wish they would do a second edition.

Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction: Work from 1970 to the Present is an anthology of fifty essays, which was collected and edited by Lex Williford and Michael Martone. From memoir to journalism, personal essays to cultural criticism - this unique, indispensable anthology brings together fifty unforgettable works from all genres of creative nonfiction.For the most part, I rather like most if not all of these contributions. Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfic...

Two words: writer's envy.

Read this for class--lots of good material! Each essay is its own, covering every genre of CNF. If you like true stories with powerful themes, you will enjoy these highly skilled writers.

A book I will keep close to me the rest of my life. So many good short stories, to be picked up and read at any moment.

An eclectic collection of some good and not-so-good essays (in my opinion)

"The poet presents his thoughts festively, on the carriage of rhythm: usually because they could not walk." - The Portable NietzscheIt appears from the bios that "Creative Nonfiction" means poets writing elliptically about the saddest and darkest of topics: death, mental and neurological disorders, a pederast father, an assaulting pet, the after effects of promiscuity (Cheryl Strayed) and more. That certainly covers the bulk of the book. Toward the end, there are some exceptions like John McPhee...

I think this is my faborite of the CNF anthologies right now. I love Lex Williford's into.

excellent resource for the best in short contemporary non-fiction. the essays range from harrowing and horrible, angry, seedy, alarming, uncomfortable, contemplative, out of control, menacing, to loving, sad, joyous, enchanting. what do they have in common? these essays are living, breathing works of art, and uncannily well written. highly recommend.

There were some really great, inspirational essays in here that will stay with me for a long time.

This is a very strong anthology with many excellent essays, though at first the 'personal memoir' style was strong and had me thinking I would be turned off by overly intimate or sentimental pieces, the quality of writing was so excellent that I could not hold any objection for long. A few pieces fell flat for me, but that's bound to happen in a collection of this size. That said, there are many standouts that I considered particularly masterful, such as Jamaica Kincaid's 'A Small Place' - a sub...

I’ve been reading on this book, a dab at a time, all summer. It was the required reading for my personal essay writing class this summer. I went to look for it at B&N and it wasn’t there. I was happy to find I could download it, immediately, on my Kindle. An excellent use of my Kindle, as I could carry it with me to Utah and read it while waiting for an oil change and even just before I went to sleep. I had no idea the book had 576 pages; on the Kindle, all books feel equally light. So what abou...

A great selection. I wish it had a bit more variety of the different sub-genres within creative nonfiction, particularly flash, and the more contemplative, but overall really stellar essays here. I had a hard time choosing which ones to assign my students there were so many strong pieces.

While racial diversity feels underrepresented in this anthology, there is some great representation of writers with disabilities and gay writers in this, although I did not compile statistics to verify if the collection is actually as intersectionality diverse as it felt while reading it. The content of these essays is wide-ranging, including subjects such as language (“Mother Tongue”), discovery of sexuality (“Burl’s), and tourism (“A Small Place”). The collection overall is rather sizable, mak...

An anthology filled with a great variation of short stories, a great introduction to the world of nonfiction writing. I had to read this book for my writing semester and I hadn't really read a lot of nonfiction short stories, so I was surprised and excited. The stories highlight different nonfiction genres, jump from themes and none of them feel the same. Highly recommend this! I really enjoyed reading Return to Sender by Mark Doty, Portrait of My Body by Phillip Lopate, Repeat After Me by...

A collection of brilliant, touching essays from a variety of authors. This isn't a book to be read lightly, or a book to be read in one sitting. I would recommend it highly, but to be enjoyed and re-enjoyed in bits and pieces.It's a strange fact of human life that we are obsessed with sadness. We love it, we seek it, we talk about it and most of all we like to see it in others. We are, all of us, voyeurs of tragedy, and yes, I know how obnoxious that sounds.I say something so dramatic, aware of

Absolutely incredible collection of essays. Nearly every one is amazing. This would be a collection worth buying, because each essay is so wildly touching, insightful, intense, unique, and thought-provoking. I'm really glad I read this, and I'm looking forward to reading another collection of creative non-fiction.

Lots of good essays here, I especially enjoyed:- Somehow Form A Family by Tony Earley- The Love of My Life by Cheryl Strayed- If You Knew then What I Know Now by Ryan Van Meter- Interstellar by Rebecca McClanahan- World on a Hilltop by Adam Hochschild- The Pat Boone Fan Club by Sue William Silverman

I read this anthology for my creative writing class. I am not a huge fan of creative non-fiction. I definitely prefer fiction. Though, I did enjoy the variety in styles of writing that were included in this anthology as well as the variety in topics.

The title says it all. This is a book for anyone with even a passing interest in these kinds of essays. Extremely well done, representative of the genre, and curated to include writers more famous for their fiction.