Blog #14

Rhetorical Analysis of Publication Venues

https://www.creativenonfiction.org/


The publication venue I chose is Creative Nonfiction magazine. This is an electronic and print form of media.

1.              Creative Nonfictions website has a page where they talk about their mission. Creative Nonfiction was the first and is still the largest literary magazine to publish high quality nonfiction prose. The magazine has consistently featured prominent authors from the United States and around the world and has helped launch the careers of some of the genre's most exciting emerging writers, as well as helping establish the creative nonfiction genre as a worthy academic pursuit.

Creative Nonfiction has a circulation of 7,000 and their magazines are usually based on subjects. Such categories include mistakes, sustainability, survival, and love to name a few. Creative Nonfiction publishes stories based on controversial theme issues. This generates energy, intellectual substance and debate within the genre.  

2.              The niche of this publication is long essay form. I believe that it can reach many platforms in terms of audience. There are both male and female authors featured. Lee Gutkind is the editor in chief of this magazine so you know that he puts pressure on truth and accuracy. Each issue has an editor’s note from gutkind, round table discussions, and interviews with the authors. Along with CNF stories there are many other pieces in the magazine that interest the reader. I think the readers of this magazine are intellectuals. Authors, teachers, students, and inspiring writers probably read this publication.

3.              –Subject matter- The magazines are broken up into categories. The stories that are included in each magazine match a specific subject. Such subject include: Anger and Revenge, True Crime, food, Animals, Immortality, baseball, along with other unthemed issues.

-Voice/Tone- I find that this publication focuses mainly on serious subjects. The pieces focus on reflection and realization. The subjects are controversial and debate oriented. This is definitely a venue for intellectuals and people who are interested in current events and culture.

-Form- I find the essays to be long. I don’t see many short essays. I find that the essays are in more of an article form. There isn’t segmentation or any artistic features to the pieces. The interviews are direct and to the point but also descriptive in a craft essay way.

-Artistry- The creative non-fiction pieces are literary and artsy. But they do tend to have the basic details of story telling. They don’t dig too deep but they don’t remain on the surface either. The one story I liked was about a game of spin the bottle freshman year of college. It was written with a type of wit and rawness. But also the interviews and craft essays have a type of journalistic feel to them.

-Length- All of the pieces are long essays. I didn’t find any short pieces on the website.  

This publication is open to all types of creative nonfiction, from immersion reportage to personal essay to memoir. The editors tend to gravitate toward submissions structured around narratives. The submissions that are chosen are writing that blends style with substance, and reaches beyond the personal to tell us something new about the world.

Creative Nonfiction typically accepts submissions via regular mail and online through Submittable. Please read specific calls for submissions carefully.

We read year-round, but it is not uncommon for a decision to take up to 6 months; unfortunately, this is especially true of work we like.

Because Creative nonfiction has themed issues they have submission calls. Each issue has its own submission dates.

The typical pay is a $50 flat fee + $10/printed page, plus a copy of the magazine.