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The Fine Art of Literary Fist-Fighting

How a Bunch of Rabble-Rousers, Outsiders, and Ne'er-do-wells, Concocted Creative Nonfiction

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The Fine Art of Literary Fist-Fighting

By: Lee Gutkind
Narrated by: Lee Gutkind
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About this listen

In the 1970s, Lee Gutkind, a leather-clad hippie motorcyclist and former public relations writer, fought his way into the academy. His goal: to make creative nonfiction an accepted academic discipline, one as vital as poetry, drama, and fiction. In this book Gutkind tells the true story of how creative nonfiction became a leading genre for both audiences and writers.

Creative nonfiction offered liberation to writers, allowing them to push their work in freewheeling directions. The genre also opened doors to outsiders-doctors, lawyers, construction workers—who felt they had stories to tell about their lives and experiences.

Gutkind documents the evolution of the genre, discussing the lives and work of such practitioners as Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Rachel Carson, Upton Sinclair, Janet Malcolm, and Vivian Gornick. Gutkind also highlights the ethics of writing creative nonfiction, including how writers handle the distinctions between fact and fiction.

Gutkind's book narrates the story not just of a genre but of the person who brought it to the forefront of the literary and journalistic world.

©2024 Lee Gutkind (P)2024 Tantor
Literary History & Criticism United States

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