Creative non-fiction

Creative non-fiction. Almost an oxymoron, isn’t it. Let’s take a closer look.

Nonfiction – that’s written information about real people and real places, isn’t it? Real anything in fact. The life cycle of a crested newt, for example, the Battle of Waterloo, or unmissable Cornish inns.

Creative is a word that suggests using the imagination in some way. I think it involves visualising the finished result, whether it’s a painting, a garden, a symphony or a poem, etcetera.

OK. A definition

Creative non-fiction brings together facts and information with beautiful or evocative language, without the essential truth factor of nonfiction disappearing in the process.

To me it sounds like a big challenge.  I shall turn to my old friend Wikipedia for back-up.

This is what I find.



Forms within this genre include biographyautobiographymemoirdiarytravel writingfood writingliterary journalismchroniclepersonal essays, and other hybridized essays.

According to Vivian Gornick, American critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist, “A memoir is a tale taken from life—that is, from actual, not imagined, occurrences—related by a first-person narrator who is undeniably the writer. Beyond these bare requirements it has the same responsibility as the novel or the short story: to shape a piece of experience so that it moves from a tale of private interest to one with meaning for the disinterested reader.” ’

I still think it’s a big challenge, but what are challenges for but to stretch ourselves and learn from the experience?

I might have to give the following comp a go. After all, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism

Write an 800-word revue of a recently released book, film, concert, exhibition, ballet, play, TV show or performance art piece.


Entry fee £10

Closing date: 30th November


Froggie:(not very confidently) This tree must have grown when I wasn’t looking.