Dispatches | February 14, 2007

As the editor in charge of book reviews, Evelyn Rogers receives many and varied titles. She was kind enough to pass along to me a book on nonfiction called Telling True Stories (Plume, 2007). It’s a collection of essays developed from five years’ worth of presentations at the Nieman Conference on Narrative Journalism. Since the Nieman program strives “to help editors and writers understand and deploy the power of narrative for presenting the news engagingly,” one can expect a more journalistic approach. But there’s plenty of insightful essays for creative nonfiction types of all sorts, including sections entitled, “Name Your Subgenre,” “Ethics,” “Editing” and “Building a Career in Magazines and Books.” Among the 52 contributing writers and editors, you’ll find Gay Talese, Nora Ephron, Adam Hochschild, Tom Wolfe, Tracy Kidder, Susan Orlean, Phillip Lopate and Debra Dickerson. To learn more about the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University, its conference and other offerings, go to www.nieman.harvard.edu/narrative, or click here.

Richard Sowienski