Philip Gerard Books
Philip Gerard (1955–2022) was an American author, essayist, and professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He wrote several works of fiction and nonfiction, including 'Cape Fear Rising' and 'Secret Soldiers,' and was known for his contributions to narrative journalism and the craft of writing.
Known for: The Art of Creative Research: A Field Guide for Writers, Writing Creative Nonfiction
Books by Philip Gerard
The Art of Creative Research: A Field Guide for Writers
A practical guide for writers seeking to enrich their creative work through research. Philip Gerard explores how to find, evaluate, and integrate factual material into fiction and nonfiction writing, ...
Writing Creative Nonfiction
Writing Creative Nonfiction by Philip Gerard is a practical and inspiring guide to one of the most demanding forms of writing: telling true stories with the narrative power of fiction. Gerard shows th...
Key Insights from Philip Gerard
The Writer as Explorer
When I tell my students that the writer’s first job is to be an explorer, I see the flicker of recognition. Writing, after all, begins with curiosity—the hunger to know what happened, why it matters, and how it feels. Creative research grows from that hunger. Unlike academic research, which often st...
From The Art of Creative Research: A Field Guide for Writers
Finding the Story
At the heart of creative research lies a deceptively simple question: What is the story? Data or description alone does not make art. To find the story, a writer must learn to ask not only what happened, but what it means. Meaning comes from connection—between events and emotions, facts and imaginat...
From The Art of Creative Research: A Field Guide for Writers
The Writer as Witness and Storyteller
The central challenge of creative nonfiction is that the writer must serve two masters at once: truth and narrative. Philip Gerard argues that this is not a contradiction but the defining discipline of the form. A nonfiction writer is first a witness—someone responsible for seeing carefully, researc...
From Writing Creative Nonfiction
Choose Subjects with Genuine Emotional Stakes
Not every true event deserves to become creative nonfiction. Gerard emphasizes that strong material begins with urgency: a subject that continues to trouble, fascinate, or haunt the writer. The best pieces often emerge where personal curiosity meets broader human significance. In other words, the wr...
From Writing Creative Nonfiction
Research Turns Memory into Credible Narrative
In creative nonfiction, research is not a bureaucratic obligation; it is a creative engine. Gerard shows that good research deepens authority, sharpens detail, and often reveals the hidden shape of a story. Even memoirists, who might assume memory is enough, need to test recollection against documen...
From Writing Creative Nonfiction
Structure Gives Meaning to Experience
Life happens in disorder, but stories require shape. Gerard argues that one of the writer’s most important jobs is to discover the structure that allows readers to follow events and feel their significance. Structure is not just a container for information; it is a way of thinking. The order in whic...
From Writing Creative Nonfiction
About Philip Gerard
Philip Gerard (1955–2022) was an American author, essayist, and professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He wrote several works of fiction and nonfiction, including 'Cape Fear Rising' and 'Secret Soldiers,' and was known for his contributions to narrative journal...
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Philip Gerard (1955–2022) was an American author, essayist, and professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He wrote several works of fiction and nonfiction, including 'Cape Fear Rising' and 'Secret Soldiers,' and was known for his contributions to narrative journal...
Philip Gerard (1955–2022) was an American author, essayist, and professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He wrote several works of fiction and nonfiction, including 'Cape Fear Rising' and 'Secret Soldiers,' and was known for his contributions to narrative journalism and the craft of writing.
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Philip Gerard (1955–2022) was an American author, essayist, and professor of creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He wrote several works of fiction and nonfiction, including 'Cape Fear Rising' and 'Secret Soldiers,' and was known for his contributions to narrative journalism and the craft of writing.
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