What exactly is creative nonfiction?

Creative nonfiction is a form or genre of writing which blends a delicate mixture of the two ends of writing (being fiction and non fiction). It uses literary tropes to create a factually based narrative.

‘…creative nonfiction is a form of nonfiction that uses the elements of fiction — scene setting, dialogue, narrative arc, etc. — to tell a true story.

… Meanwhile, what form the genre takes is a bit more complicated. Creative nonfiction can range from the purely personal (such as memoir or personal essay) to the researched and reported (narrative journalism).’

‘In some ways, creative nonfiction is like jazz — it’s a rich mix of flavors, ideas, and techniques, some of which are newly invented and others as old as writing itself. Creative nonfiction can be an essay, a journal article, a research paper, a memoir, or a poem; it can be personal or not, or it can be all of these,’ purports prolific creative nonfiction writer and teacher, Lee Gutkind.

It’s also been described as:

‘… fact-based writing that remains compelling, undiminished by the passage of time, that has at heart an interest in enduring human values: foremost a fidelity to accuracy, to truthfulness,’ Carolyn Forché and Philip Gerard…