Creative Nonfiction and Poetry

The Close Relationship Between the Essay and the Lyric in Literature

Oct 5, 2009 David Harris-Gershon

Creative nonfiction essays are more closely related to poetry than one might suspect, and in many ways bear more resemblance to poetry than its prose cousin: fiction.

The creative nonfiction essay affords a writer the structural freedom to shift freely between independent narratives and, when at its most lyrical, between independent scenes and even images. It is this freedom of associative movement which makes the creative nonfiction essay and poetry closely related forms.

The Creative Nonfiction Essay vs. Fiction

Despite both forms' concern with the creation of prose narratives, the creative nonfiction essay and fiction differ significantly because their organizing principles differ. While a fiction narrative—be it a novel, novella or short story—is often built around a plot (whether character-driven or conflict-driven), a creative nonfiction essay is often structurally built by writers around an idea.

This is why many literary personal essays are braided (in that they contain multiple, often seemingly unrelated narrative strands). An example of this can be seen in Joan Didion's classic essay "The White Album." A central idea contained in the essay is America's splintering American psyche in the 60s, and Didion moves sharply between a myriad of thoughts and scenes (including the scene of a recording session by The Doors) by using flash cuts to express her idea.

It is this freedom to bounce from one element to another, without regard for a cohesive narrative, which makes the literary creative nonfiction essay similar to poetry, a form which celebrates movement between images and language without regard for narrative clarity, and less similar to fiction or traditional nonfiction.

The Creative Nonfiction Essay and Poetry

The creative nonfiction essay form which most closely resembles poetry is the lyric essay, a literary form in which both creative nonfiction and poetry reside, a form which stands on a liminal space capable of encompassing, and being encompassed by, both the essay and the poem.

The lyric essay takes creative nonfiction's organizing principle—a central idea—and translates that idea into emotionally evocative images and scenes that appear as narrative prose on the page, but feel very much like prose poetry. In fact, the lyric essay is often so focused on braided images and the imagistic in general that it's difficult to definitively classify it as either poetry or creative nonfiction. It is the lyric essay's ability to blur the line between creative nonfiction and poetry—between the essay and the lyric—which demonstrates the deep relationship between the two forms.

Contests - Poetry and Creative Nonfiction

While many writers simply focus on the craft of writing creative nonfiction and writing poetry, there are others who write with an eye toward entering poetry contests or creative nonfiction contests. For those writers interested in contests—poetry in particular—there are many literary publications which offer seasonal writing contests, some of which offer contests for both those writing poetry and creative nonfiction. It should be understood that such contests require entry fees, and often hire guest judges. If you are writing poetry or writing creative nonfiction with an eye toward entering contests—poetry as well as creative nonfiction—it's a good idea to read the guest judge's work beforehand.

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