Educational Video -- Creative Non-Fiction # 2 – with Lee Zacharias

Creative Non-Fiction # 2 – with Lee Zacharias



This video is an interview with Lee Zacharias, who is a author and instructor of creative non-fiction workshops. Zacharias discusses about the differences between a memoir and personal essay. These are the two main types of writing that are composed of in the creative non-fiction realm. She also talks about how potential and current writers often confuse the two pieces. Zacharias also states that the authors (in the workshops) are often not open to wanting to write their stories from a different perspective, hence just in the workshop to have written the story in other to have it become an archive for their future generations. She mentions the writer’s anthology, The Art of the Personal Essay, by Phillip Lopate, which is a useful tool for writer’s to reference to and strengthen their writing talents.


I have taken two creative non-fiction courses in my college career, along with a poetry writing course, and by taking these they were able to rekindle my love for writing. Something I haven’t done since my early days in high school, writing dreadful, violent and vulgar poetry. I actually own Lopate’s novel, which I had bought for my English 468 course (Intermediate Creative Non-Fiction). Writing has always been a passion of mine, and by listening to Zacharias’ advice, they remind me about some of the discussions we had covered in my 468 classes. I would love to write more about of my personal experiences and turn them into short stories or even if I was able to collect enough of them, it would be cool to make a novel of my personal endeavors. This video is a very informational one for people who want to jump into the writing game, especially non-fiction, which though can be a difficult subject matter to write about, is a fun and learning experience as well.