Revisiting Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: Getting Started
You remember 2020. Educators everywhere were completely overwhelmed just trying to make it through the day. And that means it wasn’t exactly the best time to publish a book about writing instruction, so it’s no surprise that Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing has struggled to find an audience. And that’s a shame because this incredibly useful resource ( published by the National Council of Teachers of English ) features essays by fifty of today’s leading nonfiction authors. Each writer has their own unique story, but taken together, the anthology’s message is clear: To craft high-quality prose, nonfiction writers have to dig deep. They have to be personally invested in the process and the product. Publisher’s Description In Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep, some of today’s most celebrated writers for children share essays that describe a critical part of the informational writing process that is often left out of classroom instruction. To craft engaging nonfiction, professional writers choose topics that fascinate them and explore concepts and themes that reflect their passions, personalities, beliefs, and experiences in the world. By scrutinizing the information they collect to make their own personal meaning, they create distinctive books that delight as well as inform. A wide range of tips, tools, teaching strategies, and activity ideas help students (1) choose a topic, (2) focus that topic by identifying a core idea, theme, or concept, and (3) analyze their research to find a personal connection. By adding a piece of themselves to their drafts, students will learn to craft rich, unique prose. Behind the Book How did this one-of-a-kind anthology come about? Its roots trace back to the 2017 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Annual Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, when I was fortunate to participate in a panel titled “ The Secret of Crafting Engaging Nonfiction” with two incredibly talented children’s nonfiction authors—Candace Fleming and Deborah Heiligman. During our discussion, moderated by educator Alyson Beecher, we dove deeply into what fuels our work and why we routinely dedicate years of our lives to a single manuscript. As we compared our thoughts and experiences, we came to realize something critically important—each of our books has a piece of us at its heart. And that personal connection is what drives us to keep working despite the inevitable obstacles and setbacks. Several other nonfiction authors attended our presentation, and afterward they praised our insights. That conversation, which continued online after the conference, helped us all understand our creative process in new and exciting ways. The essays in Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep are our way of sharing this important aspect of nonfiction writing with educators and students. Want to know more? For the next few Thursdays, I’ll be sharing some of the books features and insights. Stay tuned.
