Beth Kephart’s new book on memoir extends her ongoing conversation By Richard Gilbert, WTP Contributing Editor STRIKE THE EMPTY: NOTES FOR READERS, WRITERS, AND TEACHERS OF MEMOIR by Beth Kephart (Juncture Workshops, 2019). 185 pp, $12.00. Let’s start with the title, a very good place to start—bemused, as you are, by what “The Empty” is…
Tag: creative nonfiction
On Fact and Fiction
Finding Truth in Fiction By DeWitt Henry, Literary Bookmarks Editor In the late 1960s, I believed in pure fiction, and as a writer set out to imagine and portray the inner life of working-class characters in my father’s candy factory. I also kept a writer’s notebook on the side, where I vented and mulled about…
WTP Writer: Lynn Casteel Harper
“I am not interested in writing detached from people’s actual lives.” By Jennifer Nelson, WTP Feature Writer Lynn Casteel Harper is a writer, minister, and chaplain. Her nonfiction book, On Vanishing, is forthcoming with Catapult Books. Her work has appeared in Kenyon Review online, Catapult, The Huffington Post, North American Review, Tiferet, New Delta Review, CALYX, and…
Latest Read: Handling the Truth by Beth Kephart
The Medium and its Messenger by Richard Gilbert Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir by Beth Kephart. Gotham Books, 254 pp. Here’s three good reasons to read Beth Kephart’s book on writing memoir: her lapidary prose; her vision of memoir as an instrument of inquiry and transcendence; and her superb annotated list of recommended…
Richard Gilbert: My Dog Tale Published
Relearning the Essay What our crazy canine teaches me (again) At last I’ve documented our family dog’s epic weirdness—and, well, mine. My essay “Why I Hate My Dog” explains on Longreads. Bottom line and fair warning to the rescue-minded: every adult pound dog I’ve known or heard about has suffered from scorching separation anxiety. Belle’s is…