Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies

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Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies The purpose of Assay is to publish the best in critical scholarship of creative nonfiction to stimulate the conversation concerning this genre.

Post: Karen Babine and Jay Kibble Find us at www.assayjournal.com. The purpose of Assay is to publish the best in critical scholarship of creative nonfiction, to provide a space for work that elevates the genre in an academic setting. While there is no shortage of craft pieces and craft texts, the focus of nonfiction analysis has been on the art of the genre. Critical scholarship that studies nonf

iction as literature, not simply art, is lacking in our genre. Our purpose is to facilitate all facets of that conversation, to be a resource for writers, scholars, readers, and teachers of nonfiction. Our online format makes research materials more accessible to scholars, but it also utilizes the available technology to expand the discussion. In addition to the written expression of nonfiction criticism, Assay provides the space for both written and video interviews with writers, as well as providing for more informal discussions of reading and teaching in the genre.

This throwback Thursday we’re revisiting Assay issue 9.2 with Eamonn Wall’s “A Land Without Shortcuts: Tim Robinson and ...
26/06/2025

This throwback Thursday we’re revisiting Assay issue 9.2 with Eamonn Wall’s “A Land Without Shortcuts: Tim Robinson and Máiréad Robinson.” In this essay, Wall reflects on the life and work of cartographer and writer Tim Robinson and his partner Máiréad, exploring how their collaborative approach to mapping and writing the Irish landscape was rooted in patience, precision, and deep attentiveness. Wall honors their legacy as a testament to the power of slow, deliberate observation in both nonfiction and life.

“Though it is tempting to view Tim Robinson as a solitary man moving through the wild Irish countryside, Robinson’s work is both a community effort and a community-building enterprise: he is guided by neighbors, experts from universities, people met along the road, and by many women and men who invite him into their homes who provide rest, tea, and brown bread… Always, Robinson is human, curious, and persuadable as he reminds us in Connemara: A Little Gaelic Kingdom, ‘Sometimes in this bicycle-powered world of roadside and hearthside conversations I felt I was inhabiting my own nostalgic fantasy of bygone Ireland.’”

Read it here: https://www.assayjournal.com/eamonn-wall-a-land-without-shortcuts-tim-robinson-and-maacuteireacutead-robinson-assay-92.html



Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

This week we’re pulling from the Assay Interview Project archives with an interview of Wei Tchou conducted by Molly Tomp...
25/06/2025

This week we’re pulling from the Assay Interview Project archives with an interview of Wei Tchou conducted by Molly Tompkins. The interview focuses on Tchou’s memoir “Little Seed,” an experimental memoir that braids together the narrative of the author's relationship with her brother and family with a deeply personal field guide to ferns. Tchou reflects on writing about family, negotiating voice when writing across languages, and the surprising role that rhythm, syntax, and silence play in shaping nonfiction.

“I think some of the best art, interactions, gossip, and connections I ever experience have to do with people mixing up their own perspective on something with what can’t be known about a person, a situation, or anything else in the world. I write about how much I love field guides for this reason – you have people trying to organize the universe of birds, or trees, or whatever, and then when you read the guides, you see that they’re clearly just about the authors and their own brains. Humans are self-centered by nature, and I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing.”

Read the complete interview here: https://www.assayjournal.com/wei-tchou.html



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This Syllabus Sunday we are highlighting a Prose Nonfiction Writing Workshop course from the Assay syllabi bank. Journal...
23/06/2025

This Syllabus Sunday we are highlighting a Prose Nonfiction Writing Workshop course from the Assay syllabi bank. Journal and Memoir Writing by Professor W. Walters.

Description:
This writing course is designed to introduce students to the craft of memoir and journal writing through analysis of texts in the field and practice writing the nonfiction genres. Like any other skill, the ability to write well takes time, effort, and practice. This course will help you build on the creative writing skills that you already have and shape your nonfiction writing by focusing on scene, characters, dialogue, purpose, and writing as a process, among other elements. Through the practice of close reading and critical thinking, you will additionally gain a deeper understanding of the social, historic, economic, and political milieu of a given text; the ability to provide fellow writers with thoughtful feedback; and revision strategies when writing alone. By the end of the semester, you should feel confident in your ability to write compelling, focused, and well-developed creative nonfiction.

Required Texts:
📓Water and What We Know: Following the Roots of a Northern Life by Karen Babine
📓You Can’t Make This Stuff Up: The Complete Guide to Writing Creative
Nonfiction—from Memoir to Literary Journalism and Everything in Between by Lee Gutkind
📓The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
📓Packinghouse Daughter: A Memoir by Cheri Register

Find the full syllabus here:https://www.assayjournal.com/uploads/2/8/2/4/28246027/walters-writ_1006.pdf



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Summer is here! Make it a summer full of submissions and don’t forget Assay! Whether you’re a creative nonfiction profes...
23/06/2025

Summer is here! Make it a summer full of submissions and don’t forget Assay! Whether you’re a creative nonfiction professor with a great lesson plan or a grad student that just finished their first seminar paper, we want to hear from you!

We are looking for:
🔅Academic scholarship on nonfiction texts, techniques, and authors
🔅Informal discussions of craft elements, book reviews, or nonfiction authors
🔅Formal and informal pedagogy that addresses all levels of students
🔅Brief analytical pedagogy for In The Classroom Blog
🔅Nonfiction Syllabi

View our full submission guidelines and submit your work here: https://www.assayjournal.com/submit.html

Or visit the link in our bio!



Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

Looking for more places to submit your work to or get involved in the field? Check out these opportunities at The Master...
20/06/2025

Looking for more places to submit your work to or get involved in the field? Check out these opportunities at The Masters Review!

Reprint Prize
The Masters Review is once again asking for your previously published work! Returning for the third year, the 2025 Reprint Prize will be open for submissions of previously published prose (under 6,000 words) from June 15 to June 29, 2025. Any fiction or creative nonfiction published prior to June 1, 2024, is eligible. We want to offer a new home to stories and essays no longer available online or in print, or that are looking for another opportunity to find a new audience. As always, we set no limitations on style or topic, but our primary interest is in literary prose. This prize will be judged by our editorial staff, who will select one winner to receive a $500 prize and publication on our site.

Apply here: https://mastersreview.com/the-reprint-prize/

Apply to be a reader!
The Masters Review is looking to add some talented new readers to our team this summer. If you love literary fiction and nonfiction, and three to four hours of reading submissions a week sounds like fun, we encourage you to apply. Our readers work remotely and can set their own schedules. BIPOC, marginalized and underrepresented writers are strongly encouraged to apply!
This position begins in July and involves a commitment through December. PLEASE NOTE: readerships are unpaid and on a strictly volunteer basis. If interested, please send a cover letter, resume, and at least one fiction or narrative nonfiction writing sample by 11:59pm PT, Sunday, June 22nd. We look forward to hearing from you!

Apply here: https://themastersreview.submittable.com/submit/329581/the-masters-review-call-for-readers-summer-2025



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This throwback Thursday we’re revisiting Assay issue 10.2 with Lindsey Pharr’s “Brave Person Drag: Identity, Consciousne...
19/06/2025

This throwback Thursday we’re revisiting Assay issue 10.2 with Lindsey Pharr’s “Brave Person Drag: Identity, Consciousness, and the Power of the Cyclical in Gamebook-Formatted Memoir.” In this essay, Pharr explores how classic gamebook structures, like “choose your own adventure” forms, can mirror the complexities of q***r identity, nonlinear memory, and the ongoing process of self-construction. Through experimental form, Pharr examines how memoir can embrace multiplicity and invite readers into co-creating meaning.

“Utilizing gamebook format in memoir allows the author to explore existential rabbit-holes that could feel out of place if not contained within such a ‘low-brow’ format”

Read it here:
https://www.assayjournal.com/lindsey-pharr-brave-person-drag-8203identity-consciousness-and-the-power-of-the-cyclical-in-gamebook-formatted-memoir-assay-102.html



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This Syllabus Sunday we are highlighting a Literary Publishing course from the Assay syllabi bank. The Art & Craft of Ed...
15/06/2025

This Syllabus Sunday we are highlighting a Literary Publishing course from the Assay syllabi bank. The Art & Craft of Editing by Dr. Jenny Spinner.

Description:
We offer this course in the English Department because many undergraduate students who major or minor in English (and even those with advanced degrees in English) end up working as editors at some point in their careers, if not their entire careers. You don’t have to work as an editor, however, to benefit from learning the skills that editors must have in order to do their jobs well. Furthermore, even though editing generally entails working with other people’s writing, you should find that your own writing has improved as you learn to pay close, careful attention to various manuscripts.
In one semester, we won’t master everything there is to know about every aspect of editing. A course is not a substitute for the hands-on (and lifelong) experience of an editing internship and/or job. But here’s what we can and will do:
🌟Learn first-hand from a variety of editors the professional requirements and necessary skills needed to complete an array of editorial tasks and jobs
🌟Learn standard copyediting marks and practice copyediting tasks
🌟Learn to follow style sheets (and style guides)
🌟Strengthen our own writing skills and review grammar principles in order to identify and fix errors in what we are editing
🌟Try on the multi-faceted roles of an editor in various assignments, including our class production of the 2016 Commencement Edition of the Hawk

Required Texts:
📚Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by Buzz Bissinger

Read the full syllabus here:
https://www.assayjournal.com/uploads/2/8/2/4/28246027/spinner_eng_469.pdf



Photo by Ivo Konings on Unsplash

Feeling inspired after attending ? Or looking for a new place to submit your work? Check out our submission page and se...
14/06/2025

Feeling inspired after attending ? Or looking for a new place to submit your work? Check out our submission page and send us something! Our submissions are open year round.

We are looking for:
🔎Academic scholarship on nonfiction texts, techniques, and authors
🔎Informal discussions of craft elements, book reviews, or nonfiction authors
🔎Formal and informal pedagogy that addresses all levels of students
🔎Brief analytical pedagogy for In The Classroom Blog
🔎Nonfiction Syllabi

View our full submission guidelines and submit your work here: https://www.assayjournal.com/submit.html

Or visit the link in our bio!



Photo by Urban Vintage on Unsplash

Day 3 of NonfictioNOW and the last day of the conference! Thank you to everyone who attended panels where Assay was repr...
13/06/2025

Day 3 of NonfictioNOW and the last day of the conference! Thank you to everyone who attended panels where Assay was represented and thank you to those that were sending support from afar.

Before you head home consider attending the “Craft Conversations: Collaboration, Craft, and Creative Work” panel featuring our very own Karen Babine and Heidi Czerwiec.

Schedule:
https://tinyurl.com/mrxwp8a7

Event Program:
https://tinyurl.com/4s3p35px

Find more at nonfictionow.org



Photo by Jakob Dalbjörn on Unsplash

This week we’re pulling from the Assay Interview Project archives with an interview of Esmé Weijun Wang conducted by Son...
10/06/2025

This week we’re pulling from the Assay Interview Project archives with an interview of Esmé Weijun Wang conducted by Sonya Huber. The interview centers around Wang’s book “The Collected Schizophrenias.” Wang discusses how she goes about writing headed moments - “the more heat a moment has, the cooler the tone needs to be” and discusses using index cards to map out the structure of her essays/books.

“And when I do that research, I often end up finding that the structure changes as I learn. The essay sprouts branches and wings.”

Read the complete interview here:
https://www.assayjournal.com/esmeacute-weijun-wang.html



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