I’ve been a writer my entire life…

and I have a crate full of journals to prove it. Putting words on a page is a form of magic in the world: something invisible and intangible is given a physical form. Ideas and emotions become words, stories and conduits of connection with power.

My words are categorized as creative nonfiction. I use my own experiences as a lens to see larger forces, tap into deeper stories and find provisional truths that connect us all. My writing takes the form of the personal essay, a pithy blog post, or an intensely researched expository piece.

When I try to communicate my obsession with this genre, I have only one anecdotal response.

You’re watching a movie, the swelling orchestral music is the background to introductory scenes that usher in the narrative world you are able to enter. The title of the film flashes on the screen followed by the words in white type on a now black screen, Based on a true story. You inhale softly but quickly because you realize there is someone out there in the world, alive and breathing, that will testify to the truth of what you’re about to see.

Creative nonfiction hooks to the deepest tether of our soul. We all have stories and they are all true.