What is the Creative Nonfiction Collective?
What is “creative nonfiction”?
Where is creative nonfiction published?
Why do creative nonfiction writers in Canada need their own organization?
What is the CNFC listserv?
Who are members of the CNFC?
How do I become a member?
What happens at the annual CNFC conference?
What are the Readers’ Choice Awards?
What is the Creative Nonfiction Collective?
Early in April 2006, two dozen of Canada’s leading professional nonfiction writers met at the Banff Centre for the Arts and voted to register the CREATIVE NONFICTION COLLECTIVE as a non-profit organization under the Societies Act of Alberta.
The group had been meeting informally since 2004—when Betsy Warland and I sent out an invitation to nonfiction writers to meet in Banff—to explore the range and potential of this rapidly growing genre, and to debate the social, cultural and ethical issues that define and preoccupy the genre and its practitioners. “We have top-notch writers who tackle these issues, but many are still being ignored,” I said at the time. “Yet the documentary genre in all the arts is really ‘hot’ right now, and Canadian readers need to know how our nonfiction writers are contributing to that excitement.”
Since then, the Collective has steadily grown, in listserv subscribers, in formal membership, and in the popularity of our annual conference. Between conferences, creative nonfiction readings and “cabarets” have been organized in Edmonton and Victoria.
Since the founding of the CNFC, the genre known popularly as creative nonfiction (AKA, literary nonfiction and narrative prose) has become increasingly prominent in traditional publishing and new media (magazine feature writing, literary journals, books, graphic novels, and blogs), in creative writing programs (notably University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, University of Alberta, Sage Hill Writing Experience, Booming Ground and the Canadian Mennonite University), in literary contests and prizes (CBC’s Literary Awards, the Writer’s Trust prizes, Canada Council’s Governor-General’s Award for Nonfiction) and now even has its own dedicated festival (Edmonton’s International Literary Festival).
Nevertheless, there remains a perception that “creative nonfiction” is more about nonfiction and not so much about the creative, and is therefore often marginalized on the Canadian (but not the international!) literary map. This is one of the reasons why the CNFC plays a vital role for writers of the genre: to keep pressing home the good news about the literary achievements of a genre with proud documentary roots.
The CNFC is governed by a Board of Directors elected annually at the Annual General Meeting (held in conjunction with the Conference).
—Myrna Kostash, co-founder and current vice-president
What is “creative nonfiction”?
It’s not clear who’s responsible for this awkward and ultimately unsatisfactory label, but since no other suggestions appear to have found sufficiently widespread acceptance, we appear to be stuck with it. Since there seems much more agreement on what the genre doesn’t include, I’ll begin with that: not included are strictly technical or instructional works, conventional newspaper reportage, and anything written in the neutral (i.e., unopinionated) third person. What is included—provided they’re written in a personal, identifiable voice—are memoirs, history, literary journalism, documentary, biography, works of social, political or cultural criticism, commentary or analysis, personal or journalistic essays, and works traditionally identified as belles-lettres.
The emphasis in creative nonfiction is on the use of inventive and dramatic techniques to support fact-based narratives. Contrary to a common misunderstanding, the adjective “creative” in creative nonfiction does not license its writers to invent details or events in the way that fiction writers may do. Rather, it gives them a similar toolbox to enrich and enliven their presentation of the facts. Using such tools, the CNF writer seeks to achieve, in the words of author Tom Wolfe, “a larger truth than is possible through the mere compilation of verifiable facts or direct quotation.”
Of course, not even our own members always agree on an exact definition of creative nonfiction. For more takes on this slippery genre, go here.
—Andreas Schroeder, board member
Where is creative nonfiction published?
While not always shelved or advertised under that label, creative nonfiction is published in a wide variety of Canadian magazines and literary journals, as well as by book publishers large and small.
Canadian Literary Journals and Magazines
Canadian Book Publishers
—Cathy Ostlere, board member
Why do creative nonfiction writers in Canada need their own organization?
To attend the CNFC’s annual conference is to understand immediately the value of the Collective. Writers working in the same genre, defining its characteristics, struggling with its limitations, enthused with new ideas, all talking to each other— nothing could be more fruitful. But the collective is not only a source of creative inspiration—it’s important politically. We need to have creative nonfiction recognized as an important genre, among the reading public, publishers, bookstores, librarians, and government agencies responsible for funding the arts. For this we need a structured organization.
—Maggie Siggins, board member
What is the CNFC listserv?
The CNFC listserv is a low-traffic email forum open to anyone interested in creative nonfiction in Canada. (Currently, there are about 150 subscribers.) We use it to pass along news items and links of interest to creative nonfiction writers, to post announcements about our conference and the successes of our members, and to discuss topics such as copyright law and our favourite authors. Feel free to lurk quietly or join the discussions and post links. Postings rarely exceed one a day, except for flurries of debate over controversial and engaging topics.
You can sign up here, and set your subscription options, including password, vacation stops, and digest. You don’t need to be a member to sign up, but we hope that after subscribing for a time that you will take the leap and join the collective.
—David Leach, current CNFC president
Who are members of the CNFC?
As of August 2009, the Creative Nonfiction Collective has close to a hundred paid-up members. Most of these writers live in Alberta and British Columbia, but the Ontario and Saskatchewan contingents are growing. In experience, the members range from students to winners of national awards. Some are at the beginning of their exploration of creative nonfiction; many more have dedicated their professional writing lives to the genre. Whatever their levels of engagement, all the members are passionate about creative nonfiction and committed to promoting it.
—Caterina Edwards, board member
How do I become a member?
Complete the simple membership application form on this website.This will include your acceptance of the CNFC mission statement. The membership dues for 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 are $35.00 for regular members, $15.00 for students. Mail your cheque to CNFC, P.O. Box 4521, Edmonton, AB T6E 5G4.
You will be enrolled on the list of members, and a receipt will be mailed back to you.
—Caterina Edwards, board member
What happens at the annual CNFC conference?
As one who has been to all but the first conference at Banff and who has watched as each year’s newcomers go through the weekend, I can tell you that the conference is a revelation and a battery recharger. The revelation comes early, perhaps even on the first evening when many of us read from our work. There are so many kinds of literary nonfiction being written in Canada, about so many topics, by an astounding number of practitioners. We realize that each of us, toiling away at our desks, is not alone. There are many out there with the same problems and satisfactions as we have.
The battery recharging sneaks up on me somewhere between breakfast with a table full of nonfiction writers sharing ideas while we eat good food in fabulous surroundings, the Saturday workshops that offer new ways of looking at craft, marketing and literary forms, and the plenary session on Sunday morning where we take the first steps that will put some of our ideas for the future of our craft into action.
—Lynne Bowen, board member
What are the Readers’ Choice Awards?
We were inspired to create our own awards after years of frustration over the make-up of many nonfiction juries in Canada (often overly academic or journalistic) and the lack of prizes that specifically honour the artistry of nonfiction prose rather than just its content.
For the CNFC Readers’ Choice Awards, members nominate their favourite passages of creative nonfiction (not more than a page) written by a Canadian author and published in the past two years. At our annual conference, we read aloud from a short-list of nominees and then, by secret ballot, vote on our favourite author. In 2009, Theresa Kishkan won the inaugural CNFC Readers’ Choice Award for her writing from Phantom Limb, published by Thistledown Press.
Watch our website for news and announcements about how you can participate in future Readers’ Choice Awards. And keep an eye out at bookstores for the “CNFC Readers’ Choice Award” gold seal—a guarantee of creative nonfiction of the highest quality.
—David Leach, current CNFC president