RECENT WINNERS 

Transplant surgeon Byers Shaw wins the $5,000 Prize for Best Essay about The Night. In his winning essay, "My Night With Ellen Hutchinson," Shaw recounts one sleepless night spent as a member of the University of Pittsburgh's transplant team in 1983.

As a surgical fellow at the University of Pittsburgh, Shaw worked under Dr. Thomas Starzl during the early 1980's, when the world-renowned doctor was pioneering techniques to perform liver transplantation surgery, then still considered experimental. Shaw left Pittsburgh in 1985 to found the liver transplant program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The former chairman of the surgery department there, Shaw now teaches and develops software for use by surgeons and other clinicians. He lives in Ponca Hills, just north of Omaha. 

Author J.C. Hallman will receives the $2,500 Runner-up Prize for Best Essay about The Night for "Spate and Spite," which will be published on CNF's website. The essay reports on a series of suicides in Atlantic City as experienced through the eyes of a young casino employee. 

Hallman studied creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Iowa. He has published three books of nonfiction and one collection of short stories and will teach creative writing at Oklahoma State University, beginning this fall.

The contest was a collaboration between Creative Nonfiction and The Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. For more than 37 years, Salt has taught students--undergraduates, graduates and mid-career professionals--to become truthful, thorough and creative documentarians in a variety of media, including writing, radio and photography.

NEWS: Brevity publishes Issue 36 and James Frey, five years after his last on-air fiasco, has another chat with Oprah. 

ADVICE: The Review Review offers some solid insight into what editors are looking for and how writers can give it to them.

OPINIONS: Lorrie Moore writes another harsh critique of memoir in The New York Review of Books, noting the genre's messy narratives, "rickety" structures, and prose that has "all the sparkle of a second mortgage." Dinty W. Moore offers a rebuttal, making a case for memoir as a compelling art form.

REVIEWS: The New York Times Magazine coins the term "meta-moir" to describe a new book by Luca Spaghetti, a character in Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, that provides his account of being in hers. Plus, The Millions asks Kenyon College graduates to remember David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speech, named one of Time Magazine's "best commencement speeches of all time" and later published as a book, This is Water.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES 

Postmark Deadline: June 13, 2011

We are currently seeking experimental nonfiction for our "Pushing the Boundaries" section ("experimental," "boundaries" ... yes: these can be loaded terms). We want writing that blows our minds with its ingenuity, essays that not only push the boundaries of the genre, but tear down the borders. Be ambitious. 

BOOK PROJECT: BECOMING A NURSE

Postmark Deadline: November 30, 2011

Creative Nonfiction is seeking essays by and about nurses for a new book, Becoming a Nurse: Real Stories of Nurses, Their Lives, and Their Patients.

Becoming a Nurse will present readers with the world of medicine from the perspective of nurses in hospitals, in-home care programs, long-term care facilities, hospices, and the armed forces as they tell stories that recall and recreate the most salient moments of their careers.

We are looking for writers who can write dramatically and vividly about the profession. Essays can range from 2,500-5,000 words but should be written in a narrative form, with scenes, description, vivid characters and a distinctive voice.

GENERAL

Accepted Year-Round

We are always on the lookout for true stories, well told, about any subject. For complete guidelines and to view other upcoming CNF issues and contests, please visit us online.

Creative Nonfiction #38 $5  

If you missed the first issue of the "new" Creative Nonfiction--the issue that premiered our new size, look and expanded content, that featured words by and with some of today's biggest nonfiction names--it's lucky for you that life is full of second chances. You can get it all, this month only, at half price. 

The issue features essays about Immortality by Carolyn Forche, Bill McKibben and Rebecca Skloot; columns by Phillip Lopate and Richard Rodriguez; a timeline of great (and not so great) moments in the genre's history; thoughts about the future of literary magazines from the outgoing editor of TriQuarterly; an armchair guide to stunt writing; David Shields' Required Reading; and an encounter with Dave Eggers.

Still want more? Check out the issue's exclusive online content, here.  

The CNF Daily Twitter Contest is one more way to get your work into CNF. Check out our top 6 tweets in #41 and participate daily for the chance to be published in an upcoming issue!

Still not sure what we're looking for? Here are a few recent winners, to serve as examples and inspiration:

APRIL 28 

spitballarmy Post-tornado, people shop for replacement storage sheds; clerk diverts their attention from the crumpled one in the parking lot. #cnftweet

APRIL 6 

Ralphley After thieves raided her hope chest, she was less upset about the missing $25,000 than the lace sham in which it was carried away. #cnftweet   

APRIL 4 

devakali The strike wore on and my mother became a hamburger magician, hiding it even in soup. We never knew it was all the union offered. #cnftweet

APRIL 1 

amyrosebrown We gave my GPS a human name, rendering the machine fallible. Shup up Ethel, mom says, you're wrong. I know where I am. #cnftweet

All of the past winners are available on our profile page under the "Favorites" tab. 

ONLINE CLASSES 

This summer CNF is offering three concentrated classes that will help jump start your summer writing project, whether you're looking to branch into a new area of writing or trying creative nonfiction for the first time.  

"This is my first online course, and I am pleased ... by the length and breadth of this class, by the requirements and the quality of feedback. To date, I believe this class provides tremendous value for the investment," says CNF student Laura Tokie. 

Summer classes run for four weeks, June 20 - July 17, and are limited to 12 students per section. 

Visit our website to register and to view complete course details. Sign up before June 6 to take advantage of an early registration discount!

Travel & Nature Writing is all about exploring the world around you--whether through a trip to Marrakesh or a walk in your local park. Participants will learn techniques to observe in detail, record their experiences, and turn those experiences into essays that will be of interest to a wide readership. 

Writing the Personal Essay explores the form, considering the balance between truth and subjectivity, how to turn the personal stories into compelling reading, and how to convey emotion through writing. 

Immersion Writing explores the genre in which the writer observes, participates in, and otherwise intimately explores his or her subject. Immersion writers practice what author Gay Talese has called "the art of hanging out," becoming a part of the stories they write and investigating the world around them with a writer's eyes.

Visit our FAQ page for additional information, or if you don't find what you need, direct questions to course instructor Anjali Sachdeva at sachdeva[at]creativenonfiction.org.   

Registration includes a 4-issue subscription to Creative Nonfiction. Please note: due to space limitations, registrants may withdraw anytime until classes begin on June 20, 2011, but will forfeit a non-refundable application fee of $35. No refunds will be granted once classes begin.