Non-fiction is an account or representation of a subject which is presented as fact. This presentation may be accurate or not; that is, it can give either a true or a false account of the subject in question. However, it is generally assumed that the authors of such accounts believe them to be truthful at the time of their composition.

Non-fiction is one of the two main divisions in writing, particularly used in libraries, the other being fiction. However, non-fiction need not be written text necessarily, since pictures and film can also purport to present a factual account of a subject.

Essays, journals, documentaries, scientific papers, photographs, biographies, textbooks, blueprints, technical documentation, user manuals, diagrams and journalism are all common examples of non-fiction works, and fiction within any of these works is usually regarded as dishonest. Other works can legitimately be either fiction or non-fiction, such as letters, magazine articles, histories, websites, speeches and travelogues. Although they are mostly either one or the other it is not uncommon for there to be a blend of both, particularly non-fiction with a dash of fiction for added spice.

General Nonfiction

Kiriyama Prize

A panel of five judges is appointed to each category to select finalists, and all judges then select the winners. Judges are selected by prize sponsor Pacific Rim Voices.org. Eligible books must be in English, submitted by a publisher, and be concerned with the Pacific Rim in accordance with the purpose of the prize.

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is considered one of the most prestigious American literary awards. Nominations are made by the public, and three finalists are selected by a jury consisting of editors, publishers, writers, and educators. Winners are selected by the Pulitzer Prize Board. Eligible books must be published in the U.S., written by a U.S. citizen, and work of nonfiction not considered for the biography or history categories.

Genre Nonfiction

Agatha Award

Nominations are submitted by the publisher, and final nominees and a winner are voted on by Malice Domestic convention registrants and Friends of Malice. The Agatha Committee determines eligibility and tallies votes. Eligible books must be nonfiction primarily centered on the Malice theme, a Malice-eligible author, or the detective(s) of a Malice-eligible series.

Anthony Award for True Crime

Award winners are selected Boucheron World Mystery Convention attendees.

Biography/Autobiography

James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography

Nominees are usually submitted by the publisher, but other sources are considered. Shortlists and winners are selected by the Professor of English Literature with assistance from staff and postgraduate students at the University of Edinburgh School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. Eligible books must be published in the U.K. in English, and written by an author who has never won the prize for that category.

Los Angeles Times Book Award for Biography

Award nominees and winners are selected by a panel of three judges appointed by the LA Times newspaper. Eligible books must be published in English (including translations) in the U.S.

Monday, June 27, 2005

Taking the Guesswork Out of Nonfiction Readers' Advisory

“The renaissance of readers’ advisory services in public libraries is spilling over to narrative nonfiction,” according the Robert Burgin, Professor at North Carolina University's School of Library and Information Sciences and editor of Nonfiction Readers’ Advisory. Burgin spoke to an overflow crowd of librarians on Sunday morning at the RUSA program Taking the Guesswork Out of Nonfiction Readers’ Advisory.

Burgin presented twelve reasons to do nonfiction readers’ advisory in libraries.

1. Many people read nonfiction books. On average one third of adult library circulation of books is nonfiction. Best seller lists on the Amazon website always include many nonfiction titles. Look right now and you will see 1776, Freakonomics, The World is Flat, and You: The Owner’s Manual at the top of the list.

2. People read nonfiction for pleasure. Burgin read Into Thin Air with no intention of climbing mountains. Many narrative nonfiction books have exciting, compelling stories. A reader’s interest in a subject, say Japan or the Civil War, can be more important than whether a book is fiction or nonfiction.

3. The distinction between fiction and nonfiction can be blurry. Some fiction includes much factual material, while some nonfiction authors have speculated on truth in their books. Some nonfiction authors change personal names, story locations, and incident facts to protect people involved in the story.

4. Nonfiction has genres and subgenres, just like fiction. Later in the program the audience was divided into discussion groups to identify many of these.

5. There are fiction and nonfiction read-a-likes. Readers who enjoy Western novels might also like books about the West. Someone who enjoyed the baseball history Eight Men Out might enjoy the novel Shoeless Joe.

6. Historically most readers’ advisory was recommending nonfiction. In the early twentieth century libraries were central to the self-improvement movement and found books on nonfiction topics for readers.

7. Some readers like to read what others read. It does not matter whether the books were fiction or nonfiction.

8. The readers’ advisory transaction is the same for nonfiction as fiction. Librarians ask what books readers enjoy and try to recommend other books. If people enjoy Bill Bryson’s travel stories, they might also enjoy Tim Cahill’s books.

9. Nonfiction books have all the appealing qualities readers enjoy in fiction: good storylines, interesting characters, unfamiliar places, drama, and mystery. Even dictionaries and cookbooks can appeal factors.

10. The lessons we learn in nonfiction readers’ advisory can be applied back to fiction readers’ advisory.

11. Improving our nonfiction readers’ advisory skills improves our reference skills.

12. Providing nonfiction readers’ advisory gives us insights for improving our reference tools.

After Burgin’s presentation, the audience (already sitting at round banquet tables) discussed nonfiction genres. My table discussed the sports story genre. Other tables covered spiritual memoirs, narrative science, political stories, historical narratives, humor, biography, immigration stories, true adventure, cooking, travel, and memoirs. In the table reports, “vicarious experience” was often reported as a reason readers like nonfiction.

The results of the discussions will be posted at the RUSA/CODES website.

After the discussions and reports, Neal Wyatt of Chesterfield County Public Library, Virginia, who writes for Library Journal and Booklist, presented practical tips for nonfiction readers’ advisory. She insisted that we have to read nonfiction to advise well. She recommended writing annotations of everything we read, listening to book programs on radio and television, and looking for appeal terms in the book reviews that we read. She said that a good way to start making nonfiction genre lists is to take award book lists and divide them into categories. She also recommended making book displays that mix fiction and nonfiction. Finally, she described creating reading maps that show how books in many fields connect.

Burgin, Robert, ed. Nonfiction Readers’ Advisory. Libraries Unlimited, 2004. ISBN 159158115X

Readers' Advisory

• Definition
• Leading book groups
• Recommending books
• Writing Reviews for Open WorldCat

June

• The Afterlife: A Memoir
  Author: Antrim, Donald
  Publisher: FSG $ 20 ISBN: 0374299617 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  From "a fiercely intelligent writer" ("The New York Times") comes a wry, poignant story of the difficult love between a mother and a son. Antrim comes to terms with--and fails to comes to terms with--the nature of addiction and the broken states of loneliness, shame, and loss that remain beyond his power to fully repair.
  Updated 2.28.06

• Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England
  Author: Barker, Juliet
  Publisher: Little Brown $ 27.95 ISBN: 0316015032 Date: 2006
  PW
  From a master historian comes an astonishing chronicle of life in medieval Europe and the battle that altered the course of an empire.
  Updated 4.17.06

• The Stolen Prince: Gannibal, Adopted Son of Peter the Great, Great-Grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, and Europe's First Black Intellectual
  Author: Barnes, Hugh
  Publisher: Ecco $ 27.95 ISBN: 0066212650 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  In 1703, a seven-year-old African boy in chains stepped off a slave ship in Constantinople. He claimed to be a prince of Abyssinia and was rescued by Peter the Great. Under the tsar's tutelage, he soared to dizzying heights. This is the extraordinary story of an African slave who became slave-owner and one of the 18th century's most astonishing characters.
  Updated 3.8.06

• Chameleon Days
  Author: Bascom, Tim
  Publisher: Houghton $ 12 ISBN: 0618658696 Date: 2006
  PW
  At the age of three, in 1964, Tim Bascom is thrust into a world of eucalyptus trees and stampeding baboons when his family moves from the Midwest to Ethiopia. Unflinchingly observant, young Tim reveals his missionary parents' struggles in a sometimes hostile country.
  Updated 4.24.06

• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
  Author: Bechdel, Alison
  Publisher: Houghton $ 19.95 ISBN: 0618477942 Date: 2006
  PW Kirkus Booklist
  This breakout book by Alison Bechdel takes its place alongside the
  unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of Augusten
  Burroughs and Mary Karr. It"s a father-daughter tale pitch-perfectly
  illustrated with Bechdel"s sweetly gothic drawings and--like Marjane
  Satrapi"s Persepolis--a story exhilaratingly suited to the graphic
  memoir form. - Publisher Marketing
  Suggested Reading: Graphic Novels & Comic Stars | All Stars
  Updated 3.16.06

• The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky: A True Story
  Author: Dorenstein, Ken
  Publisher: Random $ 23.95 ISBN: 0375503595 Date: 2006
  Booklist LJ
  In this stunning, emotionally charged memoir, Dornstein pens a heartbreaking but profoundly hopeful book about finding beauty in the midst of tragedy. Dornstein weaves his own coming-of-age story with that of his brother David, who was killed in the 1988 crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
  Updated 3.20.06

• But Enough About Me: A Jersey Girl's Surprising Adventures Through the Celebrity Looking Glass
  Author: Dunn, Jancee
  Publisher: HarperCollins $ 24.95 ISBN: 0060843640 Date: 2006
  LJ
  This funny, touching, and surprisingly romantic memoir brings readers deep inside the culture of celebrity while introducing them to a hilarious and lovable real-life heroine--a Jersey girl-next-door who finds herself working at "Rolling Stone" magazine.
  Updated 5.15.06

ARRT NONFICTION GENRE STUDY

 

PAST READING LISTS

Natural History or A Trip to the Field Museum

Meeting: April 6, 2006, 2-4 p.m., Downer’s Grove Public Library

Read: A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 OR The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester

Alvarez, Walter T. Rex and the Crater of Doom
Attenborough, David The Life of Mammals
Benton, M. J. (Michael J.) When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
Bolles, Edmund Blair The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age
Buckley, Bruce Weather: A Visual Guide
Byatt, Andrew The Blue Planet: A Natural History of the Oceans
Carson, Rachel Silent Spring
Croke, Vicki The Lady and the Panda: The True Adventures of the First American Explorer to Bring Back China's Most Exotic Animal
Dillard, Annie Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Feldman, Jay When the Mississippi Ran Backwards: Empire Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes
Fortey, Richard A. Earth: An Intimate History
Gallagher, Tim The Grail Bird: Hot on the Trail of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Gould, Stephen Jay I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History
Herriot, James All Creatures Great and Small
Hoyt, Erich Creatures of the Deep: In Search of the Sea's "Monsters" and the World They Live In
Jans, Nick The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears
Koeppel, Dan To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifelong Obsession
Mann, Charles C. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Matthiessen, Peter The Snow Leopard
McPhee, John A. Annals of the Former World
Pick, Nancy The Rarest of the Rare: Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Pollan, Michael The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World
Quammen, David Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind
Sullivan, Robert Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants
Tennant, Alan On the Wing: To the Edge of the Earth With the Peregrine Falcon


True Crime

Meeting: February 2, 2006, 2-4 p.m., Des Plaines Public Library

Everyone read: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote.  Read two other titles from this list or other recent examples of True Crime writing:

Abagnale, Frank W. Catch me if you can
Benedict, Jeff         Out of Bounds: inside the NBA’s culture of rape, assault and drug use
Bowden, Mark         Killing Pablo: the hunt for the world’s greatest outlaw
Bugliosi, Vincent Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders
Cook, Thomas H., ed. The Best American Crime Writing 2
Cooley, Robert         When Corruption was king: how I helped the mob rule Chicago, then brought the outfit down
Cornwell, Patricia Portrait of a killer: Jack the Ripper case closed
Corwin, Miles         Homicide special: a year with the LAPD’s elite detective unit
Depue, Roger L.         Between good and evil: a master profiler’s hunt for society’s most violent predators
Dershowitz, Alan M. Reversal of fortune: inside the von Bülow case
Fuhrman, Mark         Death and Justice: an expose of Oklahoma’s death row machine
Graysmith, Robert Zodiac
Harvey, Miles        The island of lost maps: a true story of cartographic crime
Horn, Stacy         The restless sleep: inside New York City’s Cold Case Squad
Junkin, Tim        Bloodsworth: the true story of the first death row inmate exonerated by DNA
Larson, Erik        The devil in the white city: murder, magic, and madness at the fair that changed America
Maas, Peter        The Valachi Papers
Michaud, Stephen G. The only living witness: the true story of serial sex killer Ted Bundy
O’Malley, Suzanne "Are you there alone?": the unspeakable crime of Andrea Yates
Olsen, Jack        I: the creation of a serial killer
Pileggi, Nicholas Wiseguy: life in a Mafia family
Raab, Selwyn        Five Families: the rise, decline, and resurgence of America’s most powerful Mafia                                   empires
Rule, Ann                Green River, running red: the real story of the Green River killer, America’s deadliest serial murderer
Schiller, Lawrence Perfect murder, perfect town
Stowers, Carlton        Scream at the sky: five Texas murders and one man’s crusade for justice
Thompson, Thomas   Blood and Money|

An interesting reference source to note:
Harrison, Ben       True Crime Narratives: an annotated bibliography, Scarecrow Press, 1997

 

CURRENT READING LIST

Very Far From Anywhere Else: or, A Rough Guide to Travel Nonfiction

Meeting:  June 1, 2006, 2-4 p.m.,  Des Plaines Public Library

For which everyone reads In a Sunburned Country, or another Bill Bryson travelogue, and two other books. Below are some suggestions.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story Berendt, John
Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park Cahill, Tim
Wrong About Japan: A Father's Journey With His Son Carey, Peter
A Woman Alone: Travel Tales From Around the Globe Conlon, Faith
Unforgettable Places To See Before You Die Davey, Steve
You Can't Get There From Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World Forman, Gayle
Devils on the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams, Schemes, and Showdowns that
Built America's Cruise Ship Empires Garin, Kristoffer A.
Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World Gelman, Rita Golden
A House Somewhere: Tales of Life abroad George, Donald W.
Monkey Dancing: A Father, Two Kids, and a Journey to the Ends of the Earth Glick, Daniel
Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague Goldberg, Myla
Round Ireland With a Fridge Hawks, Tony
Blue Highways: A Journey Into America Heat Moon, William Least
Baghdad Without a Map, and Other Misadventures in Arabia Horwitz, Tony
The Best American Travel Writing (yearly) Iyer, Pico
A Walk Across America Jenkins, Peter
Into a Paris Quartier: Reine Margot's Chapel and Other Haunts of St. Germain Johnson, Diane
On the Road With Charles Kuralt Kuralt, Charles
Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy Mayes, Frances
A Year in the World: Journeys of a Passionate Traveller Mayes, Frances
A Year in Provence Mayle, Peter
Long Way Round: Chasing Shadows Across the World McGregor, Ewan
Chasing Matisse: A Year in France Living My Dream Morgan, James
The World: Travels 1950-2000 Morris, Jan
My Kind of Place: Travel Stories From a Woman Who's Been Everywhere Orlean, Susan
Fugitives & Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon Palahniuk, Chuck
Italian Neighbors, Or, A Lapsed Anglo-Saxon in Verona Parks, Tim
The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Travel Piven, Joshua
Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City Quindlen, Anna
I Should Have Stayed Home: The Worst Trips of Great Writers Rapoport, Roger
Weird Us Sceurman, Mark
The Caliph's House Shah, Tahir
Three Weeks With My Brother Sparks, Nicholas
Travels with Charley: In Search of America Steinbeck, John
Dark Star Safari: Overland From Cairo to Cape Town Theroux, Paul
Fresh Air Fiend: Travel Writings, 1985-2000 Theroux, Paul
Assassination Vacation Vowell, Sarah
Seasons in Basilicata: A Year in a Southern Italian Hill Village Yeadon, David

And coming in August . . . Biography and Memoir!