Recently, I interviewed Creative Nonfiction's Lee Gutkind by email. Herewith, our exclusive exchange...
Lauren Cerand for Lux Lotus: Has the rising popularity of blogging, "literary memoirs" and reality television helped Creative Nonfiction (both as a genre, and in the case of a magazine) reach a wider audience?
Lee Gutkind: Blogging has helped create an expanded awareness of the creative nonfiction genre, generally. But I suspect many bloggers continue to be unaware that they are (or have the potential to be) "literary" or "artful." I don't mean to say they think they are bad writers; but I don't think they recognize the literary potential of their work. The seeds of genius are in many blogs, but bloggers lack the interest in or understanding of the difference between blogging and fully-formed literary efforts. I would like to write a book or convene a conference entitled, "From Blogging to Art--How to Transform Your Blog into the Literary Mainstream." Perhaps this would increase our readership at Creative Nonfiction; I only see jumps in subscriptions when the journal or I are mentioned in blogs and people click on us. Many bloggers and blog readers don't know who or what we are or, as I said, that they are part of the genre.
As to reality TV, it is a good idea turned boring. The problem with reality TV is that creative writers are not involved; TV folks are, and some journalists who will only mine the surface of subjects. Hard work necessary for discovering and delineating the intimacies of the subjects they capture is mostly avoided.
LC: You've edited many intriguing anthologies, like Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation and Surviving Crisis: Twenty Prominent Authors Write About Events That Shaped Their Lives. How challenging is it to find contributors who can eloquently write about things in a way that might be outside their comfort zone -- e.g. professionals who may not do much creative writing in their daily lives, or writers of fiction who don't often turn their gaze unto themselves?
LG: MANY SLEEPLESS NIGHTS is not an anthology; it is a book I wrote after immersing myself for four years in the world of organ transplantation. I scrubbed with surgeons, jetted through the night on organ retrieval runs, lived with candidates for and recipients of organ transplants. "Immersion" is a mainstay technique of the creative nonfiction genre. As to your question, finding writers who can write eloquently about subjects and ideas--in and/or out of their comfort zone--is a serious problem. And I am not just talking about anthologies--I have edited five of them-- but each of the nearly thirty issues we have published as well. Finding essays by writers who write "eloquently" is often the least of my worries, as an editor. Most of the essays I/we reject for anthologies and for our issues have basic failings. They lack a narrative drive or thread. In other words, there is no basic story to engage and lead a reader from start to finish. Second, the essays lack substance. By this I mean "information that will take the reader beyond the writer's story, engaging readers beyond the narrative. By "substance" I also mean "ideas"--the essence of what writers think about what they are writing about. Reflection is an anchoring element of good narrative prose.
LC: In your editor's letter accompanying the Style & Substance issue of Creative Nonfiction, you provide an elegant response to some of the genre's most vocal critics. What do you suspect that it may be about "a personal voice with a universal viewpoint" that gets people so riled up?
LG: It is threatening to them. And these folks you are referring to are obviously not very sensitive. We all know people like that--those who like to talk but have little interest in listening. Empathy and compassion are foreign concepts.
LC: The British avant-garde novelist B.S. Johnson felt that much contemporary fiction suffered from inauthenticity on the part of authors afraid to speak their own truth in their work, and even went so far to posit that "telling stories is telling lies" (quoted from this critical essay). That was 40 years ago, though, and before the rise of "New Journalism" in America, etc. What's your take on fiction today?
LG: I don't have a lot of interest in much of the fiction published today, which seems slight and forced--written more for the market than for longevity and social and cultural change. Maybe I have a one-track mind, but the best writers and thinkers are focusing on nonfiction these days; this is the genre where a writer can make a mark and change an aspect of the world--much more so than in fiction. However, by far, the most brilliant and imaginative contemporary work has come from J. K. Rowling. Her work is taut, three-dimensional, imaginative and evocative. She has cut a swath in literature that may never be equaled and captured a range of generations, simultaneously. Hard to name another book or series of books that has achieved so much and so quickly. Lately, I have been returning to the fiction of the writers who moved me when I was much younger--and now that I know first hand about the trauma and struggle of writing a good book, I appreciate their accomplishments more and more. The scope of Phillip Roth's work is breathtaking, for example--from GOODBYE COLUMBUS to his most recent THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA. Yes, there are clunkers in his catalogue (as there are for Hemingway, et al.), but the momentum of his narrative vision is hardly ever interrupted. I also appreciate (and continue to re-read) Frederick Exley, J.D. Salinger and Jack Kerouac. More recently, Annie Proulx appeals to me more than any other contemporary fiction writer. These are voices that are unique and permanent.
LC: In one poignant section of your collection of essays, Forever Fat: Essays By the Godfather, you describe a letter your father sent you, detailing the pivotal events in his life, and your subsequent search for some illuminating insight into your relationship. One sentence in particular moved me: "Eventually he decided to hitchhike to Washington, D.C., to start a new life, but no one would give him a ride." Has writing so intimately about those close to you affected any of your relationships?
LG: My father died last year--less than a year after FOREVER FAT was published. But we did talk about the book and how I took him to task for being the father he was. In our conversations, he was not too interested in admitting that he made mistakes while fathering. On the other hand, the conversations about the book opened a previously unopened door--for the both of us. We were able to clear the air and feel better about each other, not necessarily because of what we said to one another, but more so just because the subjects and the feelings behind the subjects were finally broached. He was not angry. He said, flatly and directly, "You have your story and I have mine." And that was that.
LC: Your first book, Bike Fever: An Examination of the Motorcycle Subculture, was published in 1973. I can't decide if it's the cover or the concept, but I am dying to get my hands on a copy. Are there any plans to bring it back in print?
LG: No plans, alas, to reprint BIKE FEVER. But that is a great idea. I would love it; some of my favorite passages of my own work can be found in those pages.
LC: And finally, Lux Lotus readers are a globe-trotting bunch, and your schedule of appearances keeps you traveling at a pretty brisk pace around the world. What city have you visited lately (or look forward to) that seems most ripe for a grand adventure, perhaps even the kind worth writing home about?
LG: I am always happy in Santa Fe and/or Manhattan. Adventures are everywhere. But the best is on the Alcan (Alaska-Canadian) Highway. My son and I drove from Pittsburgh, PA to the Kenai, AK. Now THAT was exhilarating.
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