source: bn.com
Publishers Weekly:
This dramatic, moving account of transplantation patients and the technology involved, written by a University of Pittsburgh professor, is based on Gutkind's four years observing the agonizing hope and despair of the terminally ill who await a matching organ from brain-dead donors. Two procedures are described in detail involving multiple-organ procurement from a 15-year-old boy, a liver for transplant to one patient and the heart and lungs to another, the mother of four. Gutkind conducted research at Pittsburgh's Presbyterian University Hospital, the world's largest transplant and training facility, which works with institutions around the country and those abroad where immunosuppressive drugs have been developed to control the critical problem of rejection. Despite the hazards (up to 20 hours of surgery) and high cost ($90,000-$200,000 plus) of transplantation, the demand far exceeds the supply of organs and medical staff. Most essential, the author points out, is the role of the procurement coordinator who seeks consent of families, links donor with surgeon and arranges retrieval, preservation and transportation of organs.
The Art
of Creative Nonfiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality
source: amazon.com
Books for Writers Editor's Recommended Book
This book is for the beginning creative nonfiction writer--one who needs to be told that writers are an eccenctric lot; one who has never heard of the Yaddo artists' colony. Still, Lee Gutkind, the author of several books of creative nonfiction and the founder/editor of the journal Creative Nonfiction, has some interesting things to tell us about this genre of writing, which strives to communicate real-life stories dramatically. The most important quality that a creative nonfiction writer can have, writes Gutkind, is passion: "A passion for the written word; a passion for the search and discovery of knowledge; and a passion for... understand[ing] intimately how things in this world work."
Gutkind offers instruction on finding story ideas, focusing one's work, keeping story files, fact checking, and interviewing; he tells us what to expect from editors and agents; and he teaches us how to know when we're ready to start writing (when you can "think of nothing more to ask or to learn"). Perhaps the best tidbit here is Gutkind's emphasis on delving deeply into one's subject matter without inserting oneself into the situation. "While immersing myself in a writing project," he says, "I routinely like to compare myself to a rather undistinguished and utilitarian end table in a living room or office. It is a fixture. You walk in and out of your living room dozens of times a day. You see the table, you expect to see the table, but you do not say, 'Well, there is the table, hello table.'" Appendices include a sample book proposal and readings.
The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand!
Source: amazon.com
The publisher, Southern Illinois University Press , July 2, 1999
Finally! Back in Print for Baseball Fans and Scholars Alike
To provide this unique if--if controversial--look at major league baseball as umpires see it, Lee Gutkind spent the 1974 season traveling with the umpiring crew of Doug Harvey (crew chief), Nick Colosi, Harry Wendelstedt, and Art Williams, the first black umpire in the National League. The result is an honest, realistic, insightful study of the private and professional world of major league umpires: their prejudices and petty biases, their unbending pride in their performance, their inside perspecives on the game, and their bitter criticism of the abuse often directed at their profession and at their conduct. As relevant today as it was in 1974, this illustrated chronicle shows how little has changed in the lives and duties of umpires in the last quarter century.
Guided by his passionate love for the game as he wrote The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand!, Gutkind attempted to present the umpires in a positive but realistic light: "I portrayed them as real people, honorable, hard-working and dedicated, but with warts and flaws like the rest of us. But they didn't want to be compared with real people; they wanted to be umpires--on a plateau above most everyone else." Since the publication of this book, neither Harvey nor Wendelstedt has communicated with Gutkind, with Wendelstedt even denying that Gutkind traveled with the crew.
Connecting;
Twenty Prominent Authors Write About the Relationships That Shape Our Lives
Source: bn.com
From Library Journal:
Gutkind (English, Univ. of Pittsburgh) is the editor of Creative Nonfiction, a journal espousing a genre whereby techniques for writing fiction are adapted for narrating dramatic true stories. The concept is reminiscent of the "new journalism" advocated several decades ago by Tom Wolfe et al. This collection consists of 20 contemporary essays about relationships, frequently rooted in memories of families and friends, which are, according to the editor, "predominant shaping forces" and lifelong influences. Noteworthy contributions include B.J. Nelson's account of assisting his mother's suicide, Alice Hoffman's recitation of simple but profound truths couched in her grandmother's humor, and Deborah Tannen's poignant reminiscences of her adored father. Each writer's style is unique and the collection provides a rich variety of compelling stories. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
Denise J. Stankovics,
Rockville P.L., Vernon, CT
Creative Nonfiction : How to Live It and Write It
source: amazon.com
A reader from Ohio gives this book 4 stars ****
December 12, 1998
Written for young people without talking down to them...
As a teacher, I think this book is useful in giving kids an accurate picture of the writing life. The author provides professional advice, along with showing the day to day life of a writer's work. I particularly liked the "readings" section to give students examples to emulate. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that some of the exercises were too vague. As an educator, I know that high school and middle school kids need more step by step explanation.
Surviving Crisis; Twenty Prominent Authors Write about Events That Shaped Their Lives
source: amazon.com
From Booklist , August 19, 1997
These courageously candid essays are not for casual reading: the dramas they document and the truths they present are powerful medicine. It was Gutkind, author of nine innovative nonfiction books, who coined the term creative nonfiction to describe works that go beyond traditional journalism in their literariness and emphatic point of view. Gutkind believes so strongly in this demanding genre (the "ultimate test of a writer's potential and range") that he founded the journal Creative Nonfiction and is now the editor of the Creative Nonfiction series, of which this is the inaugural volume.
The riveting, storylike essays gathered together here are finely crafted testimonies to our responses to crisis, be it a potentially terminal disease, life-threatening predicament, or serious psychic disturbance. Gutkind's contributors include such fine writers as John McPhee, Annie Dillard, Richard Rodriguez, and John Edgar Wideman, as well as accomplished newcomers including Kathy Dobie, Lauren Slater, and Lisa Hay.
Donna Seaman
(Copyright) 1997, American Library Association. All rights reserved
An Unspoken Art : Profiles of Veterinary Life
source: amazon.com
From Booklist , July 19, 1997
Ever since James Herriot captivated readers with his stories of veterinary medicine in England, we have been fascinated with the lives of veterinarians. Gutkind explores a community that most people know little about, profiling a broad range of practitioners and documenting how the profession has changed since Herriot's day. One change Gutkind documents is the gender shift in veterinary medicine: 7 of 10 students currently admitted to veterinary school are women. Moving from the rarefied atmosphere of Manhattan and the pets of the well-to-do to veterinary work in research laboratories and emergency clinics, from surgery on racehorses in well-equipped modern hospitals to surgery performed on farm and zoo animals using makeshift operating theaters, the author provides an excellent overview of the options available in today's veterinary work. By also documenting the dedication to the psychological as well as the physical well-being of their patients, Gutkind affords an appealing and well-written profile of veterinary life that is recommended for all libraries.
Nancy Bent
(Copyright) 1997, American Library Association. All rights reserved
The Veterinarian's Touch : Profiles of Life Among Animals
source: amazon.com
Alec Wilkinson
Gutkind is an accomplished and companionable writer who is adept at patiently finding his way into the confidence of his subjects, a great advantage for the reader....A graceful account of lives that involve an obsession that is close to devotion.
A View from the Divide : Creative Nonfiction on Health and Science
source: amazon.com
In the tradition of Lewis Thomas, Stephen J. Gould, and Oliver Sacks, A View
from the Divide, drawn from Creative Nonfiction, the only exclusively nonfiction
literary journal, demonstrates the many ways in which aspects of the scientific
world--from biology, medicine, physics, and astronomy--can be captured and dramatized
for a humanities-oriented readership.... This powerful collection of nearly
twenty essays captures an eclectic range of ideas combining literary style and
intellectual substance.
Lessons in Persuasion: Creative Nonfiction/Pittsburgh
Connections
source: amazon.com
Pittsburgh has always been-despite its industrial reputation-a great city in which to be a writer. Its active, close-knit writing community has seen the rise of several luminaries with Pittsburgh connections, such as Annie Dillard and Stewart O'Nan, and the caliber of Pittsburgh's writing community today is better than ever. Lee Gutkind has assembled a reunion of sorts with writers from across the nation, as well as the up-and-coming stars on the local scene-each of whom has a Pittsburgh connection. Many grew up in the region, others attended college here: all of them have an association with the city. The resulting collection of essays is both gentle and jarring, eclectic and persuasive, covering a range of topics-from a stripper's work ethic to West Virginia's famed Matewan shootout, Atlantic City's Boardwalk before Donald Trump, and the uses of poetry to better understand one's own life. Although Pittsburgh is not the subject of most of the essays, these writers are bound by their affinity for the written word and their collective fondness for Pittsburgh.
Contributors include: Annie Dillard, "Notes For Young Writers"; Diane Ackerman, "Language at Play"; Stewart O' Nan, "My Mysteries of Pittsburgh"; Megan Foss, "Skin Deep"; Elissa Wald, "Notes from the Catwalk"; Omari Daniel & Malcolm Daniel, "We Fish"; Malcolm Cash, "The Preacher Says"; Keely Bowers, "How Butterflies Grew Wings"; Hilary Masters, "Passing Through Pittsburgh"; Lester Goran, "The Conjurer's Profession"; Chuck Kinder, "That Sweet Anarchy We Call Youth"; Leslie Rubinkowski, "In the Woods"; Kathleen Veslany, "Lessons In Persuasion"; Richard Peterson, "As I Was Walking Down Carson Street"; Jan Beatty, "Ghost Story"; and a photo essay about photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris.
The Essayist at Work: Profiles of Creative Nonfiction Writers
source: amazon.com
As is typically the case with anthologies, the quality of the writing in The Essayist at Work varies significantly. But the many fine essays--by the likes of Annie Dillard, Gay Talese, and Tracy Kidder--far outweigh the few that seem to limp along. Lee Gutkind, the book's editor, is an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh and a seemingly tireless proponent of the burgeoning field of creative nonfiction; most of the essays included here are reprinted from the journal Creative Nonfiction, which he edits.
In the book's introduction, Gutkind addresses the differences between creative nonfiction and other types of writing. "In creative nonfiction," he says, "writers can be poetic and journalistic simultaneously." In journalistic prose, the writer is invisible; in creative nonfiction, says Gutkind, "a writer's feelings and responses about a subject are permitted and encouraged."
One of the more illuminating pieces in The Essayist at Work is Michael Pearson's interview with John McPhee, a master of the essay form. According to Gutkind, it is the use of the intimate detail that sets creative nonfiction apart, and McPhee, says Pearson, "is a lover of small details." He has also been described as having "total recall," which is partly why, perhaps, he discourages Pearson's use of a tape recorder during their interview. But the main reason he disdains the tape recorder, McPhee says, is that "you'll get a better story without [it].... Writing is selection. It's better to start choosing right here and right now."
While writing fiction is a process of invention, writing nonfiction is one of discovery, and part of its allure, as McPhee says, is that "nonfiction writers go out not knowing what to expect." McPhee likens the nonfiction writer to "a cook foraging for materials.... In many ways, like a cook, you're only as good as your materials." That may well be, but where one cook sees a funky fungus another may see a prized wild mushroom; and a mediocre cook with fabulous materials will still turn out a mediocre meal. It helps, as a nonfiction writer, to come upon a good story, and then it helps to be John McPhee to make it a compelling one. --Jane Steinberg