Richard Rubin

That was interesting. Like a few of the others, when I thought about non-fiction I thought things like Ugh, biographies and text books... I too was wrong. I suppose I'll have to take a creative non-fiction writing class now because my interpretation must have been way way off. I thought that because it was non-fiction a person had to write what was there and not what you felt or imagined.

For the most part I was impressed with Richard’s reading and, of course, his writing. Although I’m not sure that I am a fan of his style; I enjoyed listening to his rendition of that Greyhound bus ride out into Mississippi and to that first Mississippi Christmas. The reading gave me a little insight into what creative non-fiction is. It is not biographies and textbooks. Creative is the key word there. Creative non-fiction is the truth in creative words. The events that happened are told through a creative lens. I almost have the urge to go write some of my own creative non-fiction. Of course, I’d have to see something worth writing the way it happened… I’m on a college campus, that can’t be too hard to find. =)

As a secondary not about the reading, I enjoyed hearing Richard talk about his perseverance to get published. 59 rejections from one journal is a lot of rejection and he didn’t back down. It’s really encouraging to hear because I don’t want to lose faith when I (hopefully) make it to the publishing stage of the writing process.