Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction

Invigorating creative nonfictionshort, but never slightgathered by the co-editor of In Short and In Brief. In the years since the perennially popular In Short and In Brief were published, readers have come to delight in the deft focus of the succinct piece we now call The Short. Extending this trend, Short Takes presents over seventy-five writers whose range and style demonstrate the myriad ways we humans have of telling our truths. Themes develop and speak to or collide with one another: musings about parents, childhood, sports, weather, war, solitude, nature, lossand, of course, love. The stellar roster of contributors includes well-known writersVerlyn Klinkenborg, Jo Ann Beard, David Sedaris, Dorothy Allison, Salman Rushdie, and Terry Tempest Williamsalong with Michael Perry, Mark Spragg, Jane Brox, and others whose literary stars are clearly rising. Each shortwhether a few paragraphs or reaching 2,000 words, and reflecting almost every way nonfiction can be writteninvites us to experience the power of the small to move, persuade, and change us.