Blog
Case Study: Danny O’Brien
"I now have a creative choice — and confidence." Writer: Danny O’Brien of Troy, Michigan Course: Spark Your *Outlier* Story Writing Challenge I was struggling to learn flash essays; I wasn’t sure if there was a particular format and became lost in the...
The 10 best things that happened because I said yes to my writing
Once I started treating my writing as a non-negotiable—a spiritual gift, a calling—surprising and wonderful things began to happen. Amazing, beautiful things that have nothing to do with the usual measures of success, like selling a book proposal or making...
Spark Your *Visual* Story!
My new ecourse on visual art inspired creative nonfiction begins Monday! We'll be learning about the panel essay--inspired by medieval diptych and triptych paintings--as well as the visual essay (i.e. the photo essay, pictorial essay, and...
CNF hybrid forms: the concrete essay
What is a concrete essay? Intrigued by unconventional storytelling structures? The concrete essay is an example of what can happen in the space between creative nonfiction and visual art. A subgenre of the visual essay, the concrete essay has its roots in...
Mirror Image: A Diptych by Rowan McCandless
Subject: 1955 Wandering through Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market, I discovered an unframed oil painting of a young girl about the age of six or seven. She was on the ground, leaning against a wooden table leg at one of the booths selling vintage...
Captured in Black & White: A Diptych by Rachel Laverdiere
All because I clicked the shutter at that precise moment. For an eternity, the sun casts shadows that accentuate the angles hidden beneath the baby-soft curves—almond eyes, sharp cheekbones, a refined nose, and a strong, square jaw. An old artifact that...
Fox and Woman: A Diptych by Carolyn Moore
1 Woman Knees bent into spring grass, lime-handled trowel turning soft black earth. Gloved hand dropping a seed here, a seedling there. This is what he sees even if he cannot say. She sees the other just as she is seen: a red fox trotting...
Diptych 1: Iconoclasts
Thirteen inches of agony, drops of blood painstakingly painted on side wound, wrists and ankles. I couldn’t keep that gory cross—my exact words to Rachelle, who laughed—but also couldn’t recall seeing a religious item donated to the local thrift shop. My...
Fish-Bird-Kite: a prose poem*
1. I am a murky expanse. You are watery and fetal. I can taste you, Jellyfish. There is the iron smell-taste in my nose, clotted damp earth in my mouth. My body may be at sea, but my mind is a vessel. And you, over time, no longer boneless: the...
Getting to the truth of our stories: A conversation with Karen Zey
"Emergent writers need to keep asking themselves: what can I eliminate, what can I expand, what can I rework to get to the heartbeat of my story. Writing creative nonfiction is, after all, heart work." Today I'll be wrapping up my series...
I 'm Nicole Breit
- Award winning poet and essayist residing on Canada’s gorgeous Sunshine Coast, the traditional territory of the Skwx̱wú7mesh people.
- Creative writing teacher whose passion is to help writers discover new ways to shape their memories into well-crafted narratives.