Between Song and Story - Paperback

by Sheryl St Germain (Editor), Margaret L. Whitord (Editor)

Forty-six writers explore the range of the contemporary nature essay.

Between Song and Storycelebrates the contemporary essay's capacity to live between the two worlds of lyric and narrative. The editors have sought to capture that duality in this anthology, a collection of writings that exemplifies the diverse, exuberant, and intrepid forms of the contemporary essay. Designed for use in any writing course focusing on the craft of the essay, the anthology includes healthy selections of lyric and formally adventurous essays, as well as those focused on nature and travel writing, and more nuanced explorations of place. This anthology tells a rich story about the wealth of experimentation and diversity of approaches to the essay in the twenty-first century. Readers will be engaged and surprised.

Includes work by Dorothy Allison, Jimmy Santiago Baca, John Biguenet, Tom Bissell, Greg Bottoms, Joy Castro, Toi Derricotte, Brian Doyle, Gretel Ehrlich, Jane Fishman, Linda Hogan, Barbara Hurd, Lori Jakiela, Jamaica Kincaid, Phillip Lopate, BK Loren, Kathryn Miles, Brenda Miller, Ander Monson, Dinty W. Moore, Naomi Shihab Nye, Joyce Carol Oates, Alicia Ostriker, Michael Pollan, Lia Purpura, Janisse Ray, Pattiann Rogers, Sheryl St. Germain, Marjane Satrapi, John Edgar Wideman and more.

Author Biography

A native of New Orleans, Sheryl St. Germain has taught creative writing at the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Knox College, Iowa State University, and Chatham University where she directed the MFA Creative Writing program for 14 years. Her work has received several awards, including two NEA Fellowships, an NEH Fellowship, the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, the Ki Davis Award from the Aspen Writers Foundation, and the William Faulkner Award for the personal essay. In 2018, she received the Louisiana Writer Award from the Louisiana Center for the Book in the State Library of Louisiana.