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Creative Non-fiction & Phil Hoose's We Were There, Too!
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From: Nicholas Glass <nick>
Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 11:48:06 -0600
I love the word 'creative'. I live for it in most aspects of my life and am delighted to see it incorporated to illustrate a potentially vibrant style of non-fiction. So I can accept 'creative nonfiction' to mean finding new, different, exciting ways to immerse the reader. But this term still makes me worried about blurring fiction and non-fiction. Not sure why....
I began thinking about my interview with Phil Hoose, who spent six years researching and writing We Were There, Too! Young People in US History. (A 2001 National Book Award finalist among other recognitions.) He was determined to be creative in the way he organized and presented this book, all the while remaining authoritative. Here's a quotation from my interview with him that might give insight into one author organizing his non-fiction social history in what I saw as a creative approach.
SNIP TO PHIL HOOSE INTERVIEW WITH TEACHINGBOOKS.NET, AUGUST 2001: "I thought very carefully about choosing the characters that I wrote about, choosing the vignettes. I wanted to cover history from 1492 to 2000. I wanted about as many boys as girls and girls as boys. I wanted to make sure that major cultural groups that have made up this country were represented. I knew I couldn't get all of them, but I was hoping to find a good story for, really, each of them -- Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, African Americans, Jews who came over from Europe -- that make up this country.
Youth experience things profoundly. They were such a big part of all that. So I usually had, especially as time went on -- as you get into the nineteenth century -- I had more choices. Often I was choosing from among several people to write about. I tried not to choose famous people very often. There are a few exceptions. John Quincy Adams I thought just had such a great story. He was such a fabulously gifted child, and he provided such a wonderful service to the country as a translator that I just wanted to put his story in. There were a couple others, but most of these people were not famous. I chose what I thought was the best story....
I wanted good storytellers. When I had more than one choice, it was the story that counted: Who could tell the best story? Who would make that seventh-grader in the seat turn that next page? That's what I was looking for."
BACK TO NICK WRITING: I like how his secondary focus is the good story...to keep those seventh-graders turning that next page.
You are invited to learn more about Phil Hoose and his books by watching my 5-minute, original movie of him at http://www.teachingbooks.net In the Authors Up-close section, there is a movie, transcript, in?pth interview and collection of pertinent links about Phil Hoose and other feature featured authors.
- * - * - * - *
Nick Glass TeachingBooks.net 722 Emerson Street Madison, WI 5371518
p 608 257.2919 f 608 257.0120 e nick at teachingbooks.net
http://www.teachingbooks.net
Received on Tue 02 Apr 2002 11:48:06 AM CST
Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 11:48:06 -0600
I love the word 'creative'. I live for it in most aspects of my life and am delighted to see it incorporated to illustrate a potentially vibrant style of non-fiction. So I can accept 'creative nonfiction' to mean finding new, different, exciting ways to immerse the reader. But this term still makes me worried about blurring fiction and non-fiction. Not sure why....
I began thinking about my interview with Phil Hoose, who spent six years researching and writing We Were There, Too! Young People in US History. (A 2001 National Book Award finalist among other recognitions.) He was determined to be creative in the way he organized and presented this book, all the while remaining authoritative. Here's a quotation from my interview with him that might give insight into one author organizing his non-fiction social history in what I saw as a creative approach.
SNIP TO PHIL HOOSE INTERVIEW WITH TEACHINGBOOKS.NET, AUGUST 2001: "I thought very carefully about choosing the characters that I wrote about, choosing the vignettes. I wanted to cover history from 1492 to 2000. I wanted about as many boys as girls and girls as boys. I wanted to make sure that major cultural groups that have made up this country were represented. I knew I couldn't get all of them, but I was hoping to find a good story for, really, each of them -- Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, African Americans, Jews who came over from Europe -- that make up this country.
Youth experience things profoundly. They were such a big part of all that. So I usually had, especially as time went on -- as you get into the nineteenth century -- I had more choices. Often I was choosing from among several people to write about. I tried not to choose famous people very often. There are a few exceptions. John Quincy Adams I thought just had such a great story. He was such a fabulously gifted child, and he provided such a wonderful service to the country as a translator that I just wanted to put his story in. There were a couple others, but most of these people were not famous. I chose what I thought was the best story....
I wanted good storytellers. When I had more than one choice, it was the story that counted: Who could tell the best story? Who would make that seventh-grader in the seat turn that next page? That's what I was looking for."
BACK TO NICK WRITING: I like how his secondary focus is the good story...to keep those seventh-graders turning that next page.
You are invited to learn more about Phil Hoose and his books by watching my 5-minute, original movie of him at http://www.teachingbooks.net In the Authors Up-close section, there is a movie, transcript, in?pth interview and collection of pertinent links about Phil Hoose and other feature featured authors.
- * - * - * - *
Nick Glass TeachingBooks.net 722 Emerson Street Madison, WI 5371518
p 608 257.2919 f 608 257.0120 e nick at teachingbooks.net
http://www.teachingbooks.net
Received on Tue 02 Apr 2002 11:48:06 AM CST
