This document discusses the lyric essay form of creative nonfiction. It begins by explaining the origins of the term and defining some key characteristics, such as an emphasis on language, imagery, experimentation with form, and a focus on expression over argument. The document then examines some common forms used in lyric essays, such as flash fiction, prose poems, collages, braided essays, and hermit crab structures. It provides examples to illustrate each form. The document concludes by announcing an upcoming assignment for students to write their own lyric essays.

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Lyric essay
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a...hybrid form of
creative nonfiction

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Genesis
 The Seneca Review is widely credited for the nomenclature
and sudden popularity of the Lyric Essay (see its Fall, 1997
issue & subsequent issues; link on website)
 Championed by writer John D’Agata we’ll look at more of his
work in Lyric Essay special topics class next semester)
 Often described as a hybrid between nonfiction & poetry, but
just as often, if not more often, manifests in myriad forms
 One of the most growing and exciting areas of creative fiction
right now, with lots of growing debate about the possibilities of
the form

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Characteristics
 Emphasis on use of language, employment of visual imagery,
metaphor (not actually only the dominion of poets, but this is
largely the “lyric” element of the lyric essay)
 Experimentation with form
 “True” but less concerned with evidentiary means, exhaustive
argument, conventional methods of structure

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Language & Form

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Language
Emmanuel’s Spring
Chris Haven
Terrible Emmanuel plants. He has seen what can come of the earth and he digs.
Rotting peels and tin cans first. Blue shirts and sweat. He considers his wing but
refrains. This is a crop. Sequins and stone. A diamond. Fourteen tree stumps and
he needs a bigger hole. A checkered rag and Jimmy Carter’s teeth. Black beards.
Anthracite coal and light sweet crude and a ticker machine. The hole goes deep.
It is transformative. Knives and the buttons from every machine. A glass jar.
Window screens. A dusting of his own dominion. It occurs to him the hole is
incomplete and he wishes he could take the happiness he sees but that’s outside
his creation. It should always be buried, he thinks, because of what the darkness
can do. The last in is black smoke. He fills the hole and regards the mound with
disdain. His earlier optimism saddens him. He realizes that the child he was, the
one who believed in the earth, is buried in that hole. He considers his hand. The
shovel has bitten into his skin. It has left ragged marks like teeth around an apple.
Terrible Emmanuel turns and sniffs the air. Spring will have to wait. There’s more
burying to do.

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Form
 What you’ll see with many lyric essays are experimentations
with form, and it’s constrictive to say “here are the forms of the
lyric essay.”
 Nonetheless, there are some forms that tend to be used with
some frequency, as outlined in “Tell It Slant”
 (But devising one’s own form is entirely appropriate)

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Prose Poem/Flash Nonfiction
 Flash creative nonfiction is a very popular form right now (see
Brevity Magazine online for some of the best examples). These
are very short—Brevity’s flash essays are 750 words or less).
 Flash nonfiction—like a prose poem—hones in more on
language and imagery—where the concise nature of the form
requires close attention to each word
 As with all poetry, this form also focuses on rhythm and
cadence (although, again, poetry is not the only genre
concerned with rhythm and cadence).

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Flash
 ANOTHER EPIC
 BY DANTE DI STEPHANO
 I have lived in important places, times
—Patrick Kavanagh
I could tell you everything that happened on Linden Street the year the Berlin Wall fell. That was the
year the Hanrahan boy grew his hair to the middle of his back and rode his bike down the block at
seven a.m. sharp every school day. The Perry twins, with red hair longer than the Hanrahan boy’s,
vied for the affections of Dino Taglione and the older girl won. The pipes burst on 20 Linden, and we
lost the love letters my grandmother had bundled in hatboxes and stored in a corner of the cellar.
Masty Hubba danced for loosies and beer in front of the Brickyard Tavern all summer, and
somebody kept stealing the copper gutters off Saint Mary’s rectory roof. Monsignor Brigandi kept
replacing them, and he would curse and pray as he paced the block, throughout all the high holy
days of Ordinary Time, like Achilles in his tent.
 —

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COLLAGE
 The idea behind collage is to fit together—in writing—otherwise
fragmented pieces, in order to create a whole.
 Super easy! (Super kidding). But there are many fine examples
of collage essay to consider. For instance, “Tell It Slant” cites
David Shields’ piece “Life Story,” a lyric essay composed
entirely of bumper sticker slogans that that take the reader
“from the crib to the grave.”

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Braided Essay
 Like the collage, uses fragments to create a new whole; like
certain forms of poetry, uses repetition, the reappearance of
certain “strands” of the braid.
 “Fourth State of Matter,” which we read earlier in the semester,
is one example of a braided essay, because the author has two
“strands” she weaves back and forth
 A braided essay can also be significantly more fragmented than
Beard’s piece (and shorter)

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Hermit Crab
 The form itself is a metaphor, as you read in Tell It Slant. The
hermit crab has no armor, so spends its (his/her? Unsure of
hermit crab biology, I’m afraid) life occupying other creatures’
shells.
 Example in text is Lorrie Moore’s “How to Become a Writer,”
which uses the “self help” shell/instructional manual format to
tell what is in fact a personal lyric story
 In “The Pain Scale,” Eula Bliss uses the form of the pain scale
as her structure. Let’s look at that essay

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Upcoming Lyric Essay Assignment
 Choose one of the Lyric Essay exercises on page 123 of Tell It
Slant. Bring any materials you need for the assignment you’ve
chosen to class to write in class on April 22. You don’t need to
anything else to prepare. Preparation may just mean thinking
about it.