Ah, yes, the unsung hero of literary creativity. If you mention creative nonfiction in a casual conversation, you’ll likely be met with confusion. “How on earth can nonfiction writing be creative?” they may ask. Little do they know that the personal essays they wrote in junior high and high school fell within this genre. While those who write in this style are protective of it, many do not understand the value created in creative nonfiction.
Most often, CNF is meant to help the reader feel something. Sometimes it’s to offer a new perspective, tell an individual’s story, build compassion, or give us a reason to laugh. CNF builds connections between people in an accessible way, and the author owes the reader complete honesty (it’s nonfiction, after all).
Here are some fun kinds of CNF that Inscape has published and experimented with.
Flash Creative Nonfiction
Like other flash works, short essays capture a small moment, sometimes only a detail or a single thought. They hit hard and fast, leaving you with something to think about, even though they’re only a paragraph or two long. This kind of writing gives the reader the briefest of glimpses into the author’s mind or life. In-between spaces from our Fall 2025 issue, The Taste of Absence from our Unclaimed Luggage contest, and Three Weeks Ago, I Found a Body, Dead from our Winter 2025 issue are all great examples of this subgenre.
Long-form Personal Essay
This is probably the form Inscape has published the most. It dives deep into one topic or one event, evincing details, secret thoughts, and true speculation. These longer forms take the reader through a genuine journey, walking with them from the beginning to the end, and showing how the author changed. Because the author has room to write more, these are brilliant at showing that humanity is malleable—people can change. On Needing a Brother from our Fall 2025 issue, Bittersweet Bingeing from our Student Selections, and Shatterpoint from our Haunted Eulogies contest are good examples of this form.
Prose Poem
These bridge the gap between poetry and true events. Sometimes at Inscape, submissions we receive that fall into this category will be sent to both poetry and CNF editors to determine where it fits best. Pieces in this genre stick to truth, but tell it lyrically, beautifully. If you don’t know what the author is saying, you want to. These feel like cool running water and are musically inclined. Eulogy of Lives Unlived from our Haunted Eulogies contest and Intersections from our Winter 2023 issue fit within this category.
Hermit Crab Essay
Shy little essays like this are disguised as some other genre, like a recipe, an event program, a to-do list, or some other form. They maintain the requisite honesty of CNF, but they tell a story through some other format, invoking curiosity in readers. It is vital that the format matches the writing; there must be a reason the author chooses to use an untraditional container for their writing. Inscape has not often received hermit crab essays, and we have not recently published one, but we are very willing to do so.
This short, nonexhaustive list of categories might help you decide that CNF is your genre (just like I’ve decided it’s mine). If you’re craving more CNF, read our sister journal Fourth Genre and our esteemed colleague publication Brevity.
By Megan Beals, Inscape Staff
Header image by Bruno Kraler, pexels.com
