Creative Writing: Week #7

Over Mid-Winter break I ready the preface, editors introduction, and the first chapter to In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Non-Fiction. This was a shorter piece but it was packed with information. I will first talk about the preface, then the editors introduction and finally the first chapter.

The preface to In Short was written by Bernard Cooper. He starts out the preface by talking about a Salvodor Dali painting. It provides a great introduction to what turns into him having an appreciation for fine arts and starting to write poems. He goes into more depth about his own writing struggles and processes then displays gratitude on being included in In Short. It is clear that he really looks up to and is inspired by the authors in this book.

The next part was the introduction by the editors. This part i found to be the most interesting. Mainly because it went into the history of Shorts and how it came about, as well as different writers that have influenced it. They also discuss how in this collection of shorts they tried to get all different kinds to show the variety of them.

The final thing we were given was one of the Shorts by Annie Dillard titled "Lenses". To be completely honest I did not care for the content of the story at all. However, she has a striking way of describing things in a very visual manner. In one paragraph she describes looking at the swans through her binoculars and she describes them perfectly. You can see what she has written almost right in front of you.