Monday, October 19, 2015

Creative Nonfiction Issue 57: Making a Living

The long-awaited Fall 2015 issue #57 of Creative Nonfiction magazine, in which my essay "Crisis" is featured among seven pieces, finally arrived in my mailbox on Friday. What a great precursor to a celebratory birthday weekend! Here's a preview about the issue, emailed in the October newsletter:

NEW ISSUE: Making a Living
IT'S NOT ALWAYS ABOUT THE MONEY
For the young office temp, the state executioner, the musician, the activist, the refugee worker, the rape crisis counselor, and the estate planning attorney whose stories are featured in Creative Nonfiction #57, making a living is about more than just doing a job.  

It's about duty and survival and working meaning out of the days.

This issue features some of the most vivid, memorable, powerful prose we've ever published--stories that make you stop and sit and read and learn and think and forget everything else around you at least for a little while. 

No matter that I got two rejections  (ok, make that three, as I just got another!) for other essays of mine that are making their submission rounds, including this one from Hippocampus Magazine:
"We were impressed with many of the pieces submitted to our contest; narrowing down a few hundred selections to six finalists was a challenge. Your submission, Pearls was read with interest, but it was not selected as a finalist."
Laying eyes on the beautiful layout of Creative Nonfiction, seeing my byline and reading the essay I began in my MFA program five years ago--finalized after many drafts and some fine-tuning in collaboration with managing editor Hattie Fletcher--was truly this writer's dream realized. In addition to a check (a rarity from literary magazines and journals), I received this lovely personalized note from the amazing Hattie.

It was a busy birthday weekend of brunches, Sonoma County Art Trails open studios, a farmers market Vietnamese coffee and bakery breakfast, a regional park hike, a bottle of bubbly and a princess cake. Now it's back to blogging, writing and working... but I can't wait to settle in with the new issue and read all of the other printed essays alongside mine. Curious?

Order your issue of Creative Nonfiction here!

2 comments:

Kim said...

Nicole, I just read your essay in CNF, and I wanted to let you know that it took my breath away. Powerful writing. Congratulations on achieving this publication goal, and happy birthday!

Nicole R. Zimmerman said...

Wow, thanks so much! I appreciate your feedback immensely. Hey, I just glanced at your website and forwarded the Washington Post article on grades to my wife, a middle school science teacher. I had the benefit of attending UC Santa Cruz, which at the time used narrative evaluations in lieu of grades--a godsend for this perfectionist who found there the joy in learning rather than simply achieving.

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