I've been thinking a lot about creative nonfiction "theory" (theory in quotation marks, because by that I mean MY theories of CNF and nothing official). In the process of trying to read as much work as possible by potential professors of mine (if I get into their schools for the MFA I so desperately want) I've been reading a lot of very experimental nonfiction, including a wonderful book for people who think poetry and nonfiction are really different things City: An Essay by Brian Lennon (Penn State)!

It seems to me that there is a pendulum that swings in most art forms between very strict, traditional straightforward work and completely experimental, and reading another fantastic collection The Next American Essay ed. John D'Agata has demonstrated a range of work on the experimental side of the pendulum. More importantly, it revealed to me something I really needed to learn: while I appreciate the talent required to produce a very poetic, experimental work, it's not my thing. My two favorite essays in the book were by Annie Dillard and Joan Didion--wonderfully poetic, artistic nonfiction writers, but ones who focus more on traditional forms and poetic language than poetic form in the essay. I've struggled for most of my career to balance my desire for poetic language with my need to explain and extrapolate in a scientific voice periodically, as well as my love for the form of the essay. Basically, it was nice to discover I can think about the choices available to me as a writer, appreciate all the possibilities and still stay true to my own voice and style.

Anyway, all that being said, I do enjoy playing with poetic language and essay format, and one of my favorite choices lately has been to write really brief nonfiction pieces that read more like poetry. It hasn't occurred to me until recently to start pulling those pieces together into an essay, so I'm going to start. I'm beginning work on an essay comprised of brief scenes that detail my trips to see Kevin when we were in a long-distance relationship. I'm going to start with the smallest details--what I wore, what I packed, how I got there--no major scenes about the arrival or departure or seeing him. Just the details.

So, I will begin that later today. Just wanted to get some thoughts down...