Author: Heidi Tiedemann Darroch
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On Winter Writing and Solitude and Nordic Noir
This week I’m teaching Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, which is just about my favourite book; students will read only one excerpt from this poignant, tragi-comic, closely observed, skinny little book. So I hope that will be sufficient for them to see in Nelson what I see (and what so many see): the preeminent CNF author of…
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On Teaching (and Not Teaching) True Crime in Creative Nonfiction
My second CNF course is underway, and the class members are enthusiastic and engaged. We’ve just started the essay, both lyric and personal, and students are enjoying sharing their favourite David Sedaris pieces. But we’ve also just learned of a tragic death in our college community, and I’m feeling jolted back to last winter, when…
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The Happy Hollisters, Trixie Belden, and Iconic Children’s Mystery Fiction
When my daughter was seven, she had a brief (and for me, very welcome) phase of being interested in mystery fiction. In general, her tastes lie more with speculative/fantasy fiction. I blame her father. Marinating a young child in Doctor Who has consequences. But in Second Grade, when she homeschooled (briefly, because I am not…
