![51社区 logo](/_files/images/uno-icon-50.png"/){kind=icon}
![51社区 logo](/_files/images/uno-icon-50-noline.png"/){kind=icon}
Creative Nonfiction Writing Concentration
Discover the power of your own voice through the art of creative nonfiction writing.
Creative Nonfiction (CNF) is a wildly diverse and energetic genre, but it might be loosely defined as fact-based writing that employs creative writing techniques and other artistic approaches. Think of such forms as memoir, personal essay, nature writing, literary journalism, and graphic nonfiction. Think of such authors as Michel de Montaigne, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joan Didion, N. Scott Momaday, Sandra Cisneros, David Sedaris, and Alison Bechdel.
Although creative nonfiction has a long history, dating back centuries, across diverse cultures, it has only recently become an established offering at universities in the U.S.. For over 40 years, however, the UNO English Department has offered courses in creative nonfiction writing—among the earliest in the nation to do so. Mentored by nationally respected, award-winning creative nonfiction faculty, students can pursue their writing goals in a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, including Autobiography, Travel Writing, Nature Writing, Food Writing, Graphic Memoir, Successful Journal Writing, Experimental Nonfiction, Spiritual Nonfiction, and Writing for Publication.
Creative Nonfiction Writing pathways at UNO:
We are also home to , UNO’s only national/international literary journal, which offers students a chance to gain professional experience in editing and publishing, while connecting with accomplished writers from around the globe.
Creative nonfiction students have the opportunity to become part of a creative campus community, take diverse classes, connect with esteemed visiting writers, receive travel funds for conferences such as AWP, and apply for scholarships and teaching assistantships, all while developing advanced writing skills that are valued within many professional and academic settings.
That value, however, is more than practical. Here, you will be encouraged to explore and articulate some of your most significant ideas and experiences, transforming them into a literary art form that reaches beyond the page and into the hearts and minds of others. Creative nonfiction writing, in our program, is seen as a means to change the world in a positive way.
But if you don’t believe us about all the good reasons to study creative nonfiction, check out the short interviews below featuring some of our past visiting authors:
Why Study Creative Nonfiction Writing?
Concentration Highlights
Our creative nonfiction faculty mentors are award-winning authors and teachers with national reputations. Each has earned an MFA and/or PhD specifically in creative nonfiction writing. Faculty present regularly at national conferences, and have given numerous invited readings to diverse audiences locally and across the country.
Collectively, our faculty have published 14 nonfiction books with national presses, as well as numerous individual publications in Orion, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Georgia Review, Creative Nonfiction, The Gettysburg Review, Fourth Genre, The Iowa Review, The Cristian Science Monitor, Brevity, Three Penny Review, Terrain.org, and many other journals, magazines, anthologies, and newspapers.
Awards and Recognitions
NEA Prose Fellowship, Nebraska Book Awards, Orion Magazine Readers’ Choice Award, Midwest Independent Booksellers Connections Pick, selected essay in Best Spiritual Writing, “Notable Essay” citations in Best American Essays, multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize, and other awards.
John Price
John T. Price (U. of Iowa: MFA Creative Nonfiction, PhD English) is the director of the English Department’s Creative Nonfiction Writing Program. He is the award-winning author of four books of nonfiction— Not Just Any Land: A Personal and Literary Journey Into the American Grasslands (U. Nebraska Press, 2004), Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships (DaCapo, 2008), Daddy Long Legs: The Natural Education of a Father (Shambhala, 2013), and All is Leaf: Essays and Transformations (U. of Iowa, 2022)—and the forthcoming Goethe’s Oak: A Holocaust Story (2025, Ice Cube Press). He is also editor of The Tallgrass Prairie Reader (U. of Iowa, 2014). A recipient of a prose fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, his work has recently appeared in Terrain.org, Orion, Fourth Genre, Essay Daily, and Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy. He is the Regents/Foundation Distinguished Professor at the University of Nebraska at 51社区, and lives with his family in the Loess Hills of western Iowa.
Courses Taught: Nature Writing, Spiritual Nonfiction, Modern Familiar Essay, Autobiography, American Nonfiction literary survey
Jody Keisner
Jody Keisner (Western Michigan U.: MFA, Creative Nonfiction) is the author of Under My Bed and Other Essays. Her essays have appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, Fourth Genre, Cimarron Review, Post Road, Brevity, VIDA Review, So to Speak, Brain,Child, Assay, Threepenny Review, Hunger Mountain, The Rumpus, The Normal School, Adroit Journal, Literary Mama, Hippocampus, Essay Daily, Women’s Studies, and many other literary journals and magazines. Her essay “Runaway Mother” is a notable Best American Essays 2022. She writes for AARP’s The Girlfriend and is the Editor-in-Chief of The Linden Review, a student-run journal of creative nonfiction and health humanities.
Jody has been teaching at UNO for seventeen years, where she offers classes in Publishing Nonfiction, Creative Nonfiction in Digital Environments, Gender Identity in Personal Writing, Form and Style in Creative Nonfiction, Publishing The Linden Review, and many others. She lives in 51社区 with her two daughters.
Lisa Knopp
Lisa Knopp (U. of Nebraska-Lincoln: PhD, Creative Nonfiction) is the author of seven books of creative nonfiction. Her most recent, From Your Friend, Carey Dean: Letters from Nebraska’s Death Row (2022), is a memoir/biography. An eighth book, Ravellings: Essays on Love, Loss, and Wonder, is currently under review at a university press. Three of her books have won Nebraska Book Awards.
Lisa’s essays have appeared in many of the best publications, including Shenandoah, Gettysburg Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Missouri Review, Connecticut Review, Creative Nonfiction, Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Northwest Review, Georgia Review, Brevity, and Seneca Review. Seven of her essays have received notable essay citations in the Best American Essays series. Since 2005, Lisa has been a Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-51社区 where she teaches Travel Writing, Food Writing, Narrative Nonfiction, Modern Familiar Essay, and a seminar, Experiments in Creative Nonfiction. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Book Publications
Student and alumni books include Erica Trabold’s Five Plots, winner of the inaugural Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize (selected by John D’Agata), Lopa Banerjee’s Thwarted Escape, and Kristine Mahler’s Curing Season: Artifacts (In Place), and more.
Nonfiction Publications
Our students and alumni have had their work published in Orion, Fourth Genre, Brevity, The Seneca Review, Crab Orchard Review (award winner for best essay), Sport Literate, Ninth Letter, Rumpus, DIAGRAM, Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, NEBRASKAland, River Teeth's "Beautiful Things, Superstition Review, Essay Daily, The Rupture, Proximity Magazine, Plains Song Review, South Dakota Review, ISLE, Terrain, and many more.
Awards and Recognitions
Student and alumni awards include Notable Essay citations in Best American Essays, and Honorable Mention (4th Place) in The Atlantic College Writing Contest. Other recognitions include Presidential Fellowships for Outstanding Graduate Student at UNO (full ride), Best UNO Graduate Thesis Awards, multiple Helen Hansen Awards for Best Graduate Student at UNO, and more.
Professional Editing Positions
Our students and alumni have landed a variety of professional editing positions. Check out these spotlight articles on Kristine Mahler, senior editor of Split/Lip Press.
Admittance to Top Programs
Our students and alumni have been admitted to many of the top creative nonfiction MFA/PhD programs in the country, including The University of Iowa, Arizona University, Columbia University, The University of Alabama, Ohio University, Oregon State University, Hollins University, Sarah Lawrence University, College of St. Mary’s (CA), The University of Nebraska, and many others.
The Creative Nonfiction Writing program seeks to create opportunities for students to connect with and learn from professional writers through our “Distinguished Visiting Author in Creative Nonfiction Reading Series,” our annual Bouteloua Lit/Art Fest, and funding to help attend AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) and other conferences.
Distinguished Visiting Authors
Past author visits include Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Melissa Febos, Taylor Brorby, Hope Edelman, Jo Ann Beard, Camille Dungy, Lydia Kang, Kelcey Ervick, Scott Russell Sanders, Michael Branch, Dinty Moore, Tom Montgomery Fate, Elizabeth Dodd, and Ted Kooser.Bouteloua Lit/Art Fest
The annual Bouteloua Lit/Art Fest coordinated by the Creative Nonfiction Writing Program features visits and talks by notable authors. The event at Glacier Creek Prairie Preserve is open to the public and includes an author panel and a local art exhibition. There are connected events on campus geared specifically for students that allow aspiring writers to interact directly with visiting authors about the craft of writing creative nonfiction.Conference Funding
To help students pursue their creative and professional goals, they can apply for funds to help them attend the —the largest and most significant professional conference for writers in the country. At AWP, students have an opportunity to attend panel presentations on numerous subjects related to writing, teaching, editing, and publishing creative nonfiction. They can also connect with journal and book editors, and hear readings by prestigious authors. Locations vary from year to year, but have recently included Los Angeles, Boston, Tampa Bay, and Chicago.
The Linden Review, UNO’s only national/international literary journal, is a biannual, online publication housed in the UNO English Department and produced by faculty and students. In the attached course, Publishing the Linden Review (ENGL 4940), both graduate and undergraduate students gain professional editing and publishing experience while working with authors from the U.S and across the globe. In collaboration with the Medical Humanities programs at the University of Nebraska at 51社区, and with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the journal’s mission is to publish high-quality creative nonfiction that investigates the complexities of the word health: physical, mental, spiritual, and environmental.
Visit the to learn more and read past issues.
The John McKenna Undergraduate Scholarship and Graduate Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction Writing is named in honor of Professor John J. McKenna, a celebrated teacher, writer, and scholar of nonfiction writing who dedicated more than forty years of teaching and service to the University of Nebraska at 51社区. His legacy is commemorated by former student and benefactor Yvette Kinney, the first graduate of the UNO English Department’s Advanced Writing Graduate Certificate. She and her husband Doug have generously established these awards in support of students devoted to the study and craft of creative nonfiction.
The McKenna Scholarship/Fellowship covers tuition (up to a certain number of credit hours), fees, and a $350 stipend for books or other educational expenses. There are also generous awards for Runner-Up ($3000) and Honorable Mention ($1500) for each category.