Bring the Creative Non-Fiction, Clemson!

The Clemson Literary Festival is currently underway this week, and while I can't knock the line-up for this year too much (Richard Ford is one of those authors I keep meaning to start reading, and my old professor/boss at McSweeneys John Warner is one of the authors at the event), I do have a slightly different list of people I'd like to see at the event (or events, as it's a series of readings and what not spread out over a couple of days). It's my wish-list, if you will, and while allowing for the fact that Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Updike, and Graham Greene are no longer among us (but what a hell of a panel discussion that would be: "Sin and Man in Twentieth-Century Literature..."), I think I'd stick to something that doesn't get mentioned much when people learn that you're an English major: creative non-fiction.

Barring the kind of creative non-fiction that actually is fiction (James Frey, Jayson Blair, etc.), creative non-fiction to me consists mostly of well-written essays, and essay-writing is an art form that looks deceptively easy but is anything but. For the most part, creative non-fiction has been my most publishable endeavor (i.e., magazines and online sites tend to look for it more than fiction), and I have some definite preferences.

I like the work especially of non-fiction writers (or fiction writers dipping their toes in the non-fiction stream) that challenges accepted notions. I'm something of a pop-culture obssessive (in case you couldn't tell from some of my previous posts), so I love to read either about bands or artists or directors that I already know or love, or discover new paragons of whatever art form I'm reading about who either just started or were unknown to me before I read that essay or collection.

With that in mind, let me offer my dream list: Roy Blount Jr. (Southern writer whose book About Three Bricks Shy of a Load is my favorite football book), Michael Chabon (kinda cheating, because he's primarily a fiction writer, but his collection Manhood for Amateurs is a must-read), A.J. Jacobs (The Know-It-All), Anthony Bourdain (c'mon, you gotta read Kitchen Confidential), Sarah Vowell, Tom Wolfe (he invented the creative non-fiction genre, more or less), P.J. O'Rourke, David Sedaris, Chuck Klosterman, Greil Marcus (these two are the best rock critics I've ever read), and I'm blanking on who else but I'm guessing that's a pretty solid line-up. So make it happen, Clemson...I dares you!

Unless you can get Thomas Pynchon to come out of hiding, I think my list is hard to top (but that would top it).

Trevor has spoken...