Hello Nourishing Real Talk listener!
I believe in telling stories without shame. This means that when we find the courage to share a part of ourselves publicly, we have come to a place where we are unashamed and we are comfortable with all the parts of our story that make us who we are. This is why I do the work that I do of writing, teaching, and publishing creative nonfiction—it is the very thing that has healed me both emotionally and physically more than once in my life and now I strive to help others do the same.
If this resonates with you, I’d love to connect more deeply and keep in touch with you. The best way to do that is by signing up for my email list, and when you do you’ll get a free PDF download of 30 Days of Writing Prompts.
listen to my podcast
More to The Story is all about creative nonfiction and the power of sharing your personal story. Guests read an excerpt of their story and then we chat about it.
read my magazine
For more about Under the Gum Tree, head on over to underthegumtree.com, where you can get a complimentary digital copy of the premiere issue.
Interested in learning more about authentic storytelling?
You might be wondering what creative nonfiction even is, or how it could be beneficial to you. Creative nonfiction, or CNF as it’s also called, is a genre of nonfiction that breaks into several sub-genres: biography & autobiography, memoir, personal essay, lyric essay, meditative essay, literary journalism, and flash nonfiction.
CNF 101 is designed as a survey course, which means that our attention will be on exploring and understanding the genre in its many forms. Although there will be time for writing, that is not our central focus. The goal of this course is to foster a greater understanding of the creative nonfiction genre so that when you leave and sit down to your next piece of writing you may readily identify the form that it wants or needs to take.
Lessons will discuss work of creative nonfiction that exemplifies these sub-genres; look at how published authors successfully execute their pieces in each of these forms; and include writing prompts for you to spend time writing your own creative nonfiction. Above all, we will leave room for exploring how creative nonfiction is often undefined, unruly and, sometimes, unavoidable.