Godfather of nonfiction: Q&A with Lee Gutkind

Any moment now, readers of The Age will be opening their morning newspapers to discover the full 2012 Melbourne Writers Festival program. Time to get looking and booking via the main MWF website.

There are dozens of interesting topic streams to fall into this year, and one that I’m very much looking forward to is the creative nonfiction stream.

This year, not only do we get David Grann and his New Yorker pals coming to Melbourne, but Lee Gutkind (aka the godfather of creative nonfiction) will be gracing our shores to present a seminar on the foundations of the genre. Oh, and while he’s here, why not launch the very first Australian themed edition of Creative Nonfiction journal?

Sounds pretty good to me. I asked Lee what the go was with the new edition…

Can you talk about what prompted the Australian edition and what you see as its key strengths?

The story Geraldine Brooks tells in this issue about how and why her father became settled in Australia is exactly the kind of story that cements my long-held belief that creative nonfiction, the genre, and Australia, the place and its people, are inherently in synch—linked by content, style and spirit.

Briefly, Brooks’ father, a Hollywood entertainer, on the run after an affair with the wife of a famous producer, flees to Australia and joins a touring band. But the bandleader ditches his fellow musicians and takes off with the money so her father, broke, is now stranded. A good story as it is—but there’s more. It is 1940. The Nazis invade France. Paris falls. Brooks’ father goes drinking with his Australian buddies—and they all decide to fight the “Nazi bastards.” So they enlist in the Australian Army, including her father, an American citizen. And he never goes home again—at least to stay.

Now that’s as Australian and creative nonfiction-like as can be—a true story that is so unpredictable that you just can’t make it up. There are so many stories like this in Australia. Nearly every person you meet has a tale to tell. This was evidenced in the nearly 350 essays submitted to us for the Best Essay Prize. There’s an inherent theme of restlessness and rebellion in very many of these submissions—writers searching for something different, something better, in life.

Who do you see as the most exciting new voices coming through the field of creative non-fiction in the present day?

Rebecca Skloot (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) is by far the most exciting and accomplished. Cheryl Strayed’s Wild is wrenching and honest.

This year you’ll be presenting a seminar at the festival on the boundaries and pitfalls of writing creative non-fiction. What are some of the common challenges that all writers are likely to face when entering the genre?

So many. Like remembering that creative nonfiction is framed in narrative and explores subjects in scenes. That it takes a lot of time and effort to find the right story, and that the story or stories being told are true and, when possible, verifiable. This includes memoir. And even with memoir the challenge is to realize that your story, no matter how dramatic and potentially compelling, must be directed to the largest body of readership possible. A good memoirist/essayist is inward–and outward. It may take place in Sydney or the Gold Coast, but it must ring true in Perth or in Pittsburgh. And remember also the title of my new book about creative nonfiction–because that says it all: YOU CANT MAKE THIS STUFF UP.

What qualities/characteristics do you tend to encourage in your students?

Commitment to the form and the subject, an ability to go beyond the craft of the genre and think creatively and intensely, to understand the material so well that your words and your stories have meaning behind them. This takes time and effort and a willingness to nurture your work until it is ready–not to send it out too soon because of yearning for reinforcement through publication.

Will we see an electronic version of Creative Nonfiction anytime soon?

You bet. We are working on it now.

Click here to find out more about Lee Gutkind’s MWF events.