Lee Gutkind
Encyclopedia
Lee Gutkind is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 writer.

Gurkind is the founder of the literary magazine
Literary magazine
A literary magazine is a periodical devoted to literature in a broad sense. Literary magazines usually publish short stories, poetry and essays along with literary criticism, book reviews, biographical profiles of authors, interviews and letters...

 Creative Nonfiction
Creative Nonfiction (magazine)
Creative Nonfiction is a literary magazine based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The journal was founded by Lee Gutkind in 1993 making it the first literary magazine to publish, exclusively and on a regular basis, high quality nonfiction prose...

 and the author or editor of over a dozen books. He started the first ever MFA
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 program in creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service...

 at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. Currently, he is the Distinguished Writer in Residence at the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes and professor in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

Early life

Gutkind was born in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and educated at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

. Formally a motorcyclist, a medical insider, a sailor, a college professor, a mid-life father and a literary whipping boy, Lee Gutkind was an unlikely success, as he explained in his previous book, Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather. His upcoming book, entitled, Truckin’ with Sam: A Father and Son, The Mick and The Dyl, Rockin’ and Rollin’, On the Road, is a follow-up to his memoir Forever Fat. His immersion experiences into the motorcycle subculture, the organ transplant milieu, baseball umpires and in other heretofore un-mined worlds about which he has written books, along with the literary techniques he has developed, has helped to create a new paradigm for writing about the world — the “literature of reality” that is creative nonfiction.

Gutkind is founder and editor of the journal Creative Nonfiction, the first and largest literary journal devoted to creative nonfiction. He is also editor of Best Creative Nonfiction, an annual anthology of creative nonfiction. Gutkind is author of Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction. Gutkind has written 15 books, and edited 18 collections and volumes. In celebration of his impact on the genre, In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, was published in 2004 by W.W. Norton. Book List called In Fact “an electrifying anthology . . . an exciting and defining creative nonfiction primer.”

Vanity Fair Magazine proclaimed Gutkind “the Godfather
Godfather
A godfather is a male godparent in the Christian tradition.Godfather may also refer to:*A male arranged to be legal guardian of a child if untimely demise is met by the parentsPeople:* Capo di tutti capi, a Mafia crime boss...

” behind the creative nonfiction movement, and Harper’s Magazine noted that he is “the leading figure behind the creative nonfiction movement.”

Career

Lee Gutkind’s books have been praised for being simultaneously personal and universally informative. His award-winning Many Sleepless Nights, an inside chronicle of the world of organ transplantation, has been reprinted in Italian, Korean and Japanese editions. An Unspoken Art, a profile of veterinary medicine, was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. His book about major league umpires, The Best Seat In Baseball, But You Have to Stand!, was called by USA Today "unprecedented, revealing, startling and poignant."

Gutkind frequently crosses genres as a writer, editor and reporter. He is a published novelist, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and served as a consulting editor at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. teaching narrative techniques to reporters, producers and editors on the Science Desk. Also as the former director of the writing program at the University of Pittsburgh, Lee Gutkind pioneered the teaching of creative nonfiction, conducting workshops and presenting readings throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and Israel.

Gutkind founded the creative nonfiction program and MFA degree at the University of Pittsburgh, the first in the world. He helped found the low residency MFA program in creative nonfiction at Goucher College
Goucher College
Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...

, and was director of the Mid-Atlantic Creative Nonfiction Writers’ Conference at Goucher for 11 years. He was the director and founder of the 412 Creative Nonfiction Literary Festival for four years, a citywide literary event that provides professional development to students and city residents and fosters the strength of the local writing community. Gutkind also served as the Virginia G. Piper Distinguished Writer in Residence at Arizona State University in 2007-2008.

Awards

Lee Gutkind's list of honorary achievements include: The Steve Allan Individual Award, by United Mental Health, Inc; Chancellor's Award for Public Service; Meritorious Service Award by American Council on Transplantation; Howard Blakeslee Award by the American Heart Association
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is a non-profit organization in the United States that fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and deaths caused by cardiovascular disease and stroke. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas...

 for "outstanding journalism; Golden Eagle Award
Golden Eagle Award
The Golden Eagle Award is an accolade by the Russian National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, directors, actors, and writers...

 by CINE, for the film, A Place Just Right; Recipient of National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship. In 2004, Gutkind was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Chatham College
Chatham College
Chatham University is an American university with a women's undergraduate college and coeducational graduate programs through the doctoral level, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Shadyside neighborhood. The campus population of approximately 2,300 includes undergraduate women and graduate...

.

Written by Lee

Title Description Publisher Year ISBN
Truckin' with Sam A memoir chronicling several years of Gutkind's experiences traveling across the United States and the world with his son Sam, who appears later in the book as a co-author. State University of New York Press  2010 ISBN 978-1438432595
Almost Human: Making Robots Think
Almost Human: Making Robots Think
Almost Human: Making Robots Think is a book written by Lee Gutkind founder of Creative Nonfiction. Gutkind spent six years as a "fly on the wall" researcher at the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Melon University in Pittsburgh...

Documents four years of observation at the Carnegie-Mellon University Robotics Institute
Robotics Institute
The Robotics Institute is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is considered to be one of the leading centers of robotics research in the world....

, as they imagine, design, build, and test robots. Some scenes also take place at NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 and in the Atacama Desert
Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert is a plateau in South America, covering a strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. It is, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications, the driest desert in the world...

 in Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

.
W. W. Norton
W. W. Norton
W. W. Norton & Company is an independent American book publishing company based in New York City. It is well known for its "Norton Anthologies", particularly the Norton Anthology of English Literature and the "Norton Critical Editions" series of texts which are frequently assigned in university...

 
2007 ISBN 978-0-393-05867-3
Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather A memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...

.
University of Nebraska Press
University of Nebraska Press
The University of Nebraska Press, founded in 1941, is a publisher of scholarly and popular-press books. It is the second-largest state university press in the United States and, including private institutions, ranks among the 10 largest university presses in the United States...

 
2004 ISBN 0-8032-2194-0
The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand: The Game as Umpires See It A reprint
Reprint
A reprint is a re-publishing of material that has already been previously published. The word reprint is used in many fields.-Academic publishing:...

 of the original 1973 book from Dial Press
Dial Press
The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh.Dial Press shared a building with The Dial and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W.R...

.
University of Southern Illinois Press 1999 ISBN 978-0809321957
The Veterinarian's Touch: Profiles of Life Among the Animals Various profiles of veterinarians. Owl Books 1998 ISBN 978-0805058116
The Art of Creative Nonfiction: The Literature of Reality A writer's guide to the craft
Craft
A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...

 of creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction
Creative nonfiction is a genre of writing that uses literary styles and techniques to create factually accurate narratives. Creative nonfiction contrasts with other nonfiction, such as technical writing or journalism, which is also rooted in accurate fact, but is not primarily written in service...

.
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...

 
1996 ISBN 0-471-11356-5
Creative Nonfiction: How to Live it and Write It A guide to teach young writers how to use creative nonfiction Chicago Review Press  1996 ISBN 1-55652-266-5
Stuck in Time: The Tragedy of Childhood Mental Illness An examination of the American health care system
Health care in the United States
Health care in the United States is provided by many separate legal entities. Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by the private sector...

.
Henry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company is an American book publishing company. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt...

 
1994 ISBN 0-8050-1469-1
One Children's Place: Inside a Children's Hospital An examination of the American health care system
Health care in the United States
Health care in the United States is provided by many separate legal entities. Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by the private sector...

.
A Plume Book
Plume (publishing)
Plume is a publishing company in the United States, founded in 1970 as the trade paperback imprint of New American Library. Today it is a division of Penguin Group, with a backlist of approximately 700 titles....

 by Penguin
Penguin Group
The Penguin Group is a trade book publisher, the largest in the world , having overtaken Random House in 2009. The Penguin Group is the name of the incorporated division of parent Pearson PLC that oversees these publishing operations...

 
1992 ISBN 978-0452266872
Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation An inside look at the world of organ transplantation. W. W. Norton & Co.  1990 ISBN 978-0822959052
The People of Penn's Woods West Essays about rural America. University of Pittsburgh Press
University of Pittsburgh Press
The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States....

 
1984 ISBN 978-0822953609
God's Helicopter
God's Helicopter
God's Helicopter is a young-adult novel by the American writer Lee Gutkind.It is set in 1950s Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when Dwight Eisenhower was president, Ralph Kiner was the left fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the greatest man to ever live, according to the twelve-year-old Willie...

A novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

.
Slow Loris Press 1983 ISBN 978-0941038096
The Best Seat in Baseball, But You Have to Stand: The Game As Umpires See It An inside look at the life of major league
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

 umpires.
Dial Press
Dial Press
The Dial Press was a publishing house founded in 1923 by Lincoln MacVeagh.Dial Press shared a building with The Dial and Scofield Thayer worked with both. The first imprint was issued in 1924. Authors included Elizabeth Bowen, W.R...

 
1975 ISBN 978-0809321957
Bike Fever: An Examination of the Motorcycle Subculture Lee's first book. Avon Books, Inc.
Avon (publishers)
Avon Publications was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. As of 2010, it is an imprint of HarperCollins, publishing primarily romance novels.-History:...

 
1974 ISBN 978-0695803803

Edited by Lee

Title Description Publisher Year ISBN
Twelve Breaths a Minute: End of Life Essays Twenty-three original, personal narratives that examine the way we as a society care for the dying. Southern Methodist University Press  2011 ISBN 978-0870745713
Becoming a Doctor: From Student to Specialist, Doctor-Writers Share Their Experiences (CNF description) Physicians recount personal stories from their lives in white coats in this inspired anthology by new and known writers. These original stories reveal the inner lives of the men and women who are often rendered invisible by their white coats. W.W. Norton  2010 ISBN 978-0393334555
The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 3 A third special issue of Creative Nonfiction that features twenty-five essays that originally appeared in alternative publications, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

s, literary journals, and other publications.
W.W. Norton  2009 ISBN 978-0-393-33025-0
The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2 A second special issue of Creative Nonfiction that features twenty-nine essays that originally appeared in alternative publications, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

s, literary journals, and other publications.
W.W. Norton  2008 ISBN 978-0-393-33024-3
Anatomy of Baseball Twenty new and classic essay
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s about the American past time.
SMU Press
Southern Methodist University Press
Southern Methodist University Press is a university press that is part of Southern Methodist University. It was established in 1937 and is the oldest academic publisher in Texas. The press releases eight to ten titles each year and is known for its literary fiction. It is scheduled to suspend...

 
2008 ISBN 978-0-87074-522-5
Keep It Real: Everything You Need to Know About Researching and Writing Creative Nonfiction Provides writers with the working parameters of the creative nonfiction genre W.W. Norton  2008 ISBN 978-0-393-06561-9
Silence Kills: Speaking Out and Saving Lives Twelve new essays written by physicians, patients, and family members. Explores the communication breakdown in the current American health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

 system
SMU Press 2007 ISBN 978-0-87074-518-8
The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 1 A special issue of Creative Nonfiction that features twenty-seven essays that originally appeared in alternative publications, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

s, literary journals, and other publications.
W.W. Norton 2007 ISBN 978-0-393-33003-8
Hurricanes and Carnivals: Essays by Chicanos, Pochos, Pachucos, Mexicanos, and Expatriates Originally published as Issue 23 of Creative Nonfiction, this book features fifteen essays that push the boundaries between fact and fiction. The University of Arizona Press
University of Arizona Press
The University of Arizona Press, a publishing house founded in 1959 as a department of the University of Arizona, is a nonprofit publisher of scholarly and regional books...

 
2007 ISBN 978-0-8165-2625-3
Our Roots are Deep with Passion: `Creative Nonfiction` Collects New Essays by Italian American Writers Twenty-one essays written by established and emerging writers that explore the unique intersections of language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...

, tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...

, cuisine
Cuisine
Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

, and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 that characterize the diverse experience of Americans of Italian heritage.
Other Press 2006 ISBN 978-1-59051-242-5
Rage & Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution Originally published as issue 21 of Creative Nonfiction, the book includes new essays and an 80- minute CD containing three essays read by professional actors and a panel discussion of the ethical dimensions of the issues raised. Produced in conjunction with Pittsburgh's Jewish Healthcare Foundation
Jewish Healthcare Foundation
The Jewish Healthcare Foundation is a not-for-profit public charity based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that supports healthcare services, education, and research to encourage medical advancement and protect vulnerable populations.-Mission:...

, writers tackle health care in America, including problems of patient rights and professional responsibility
Professional responsibility
Professional responsibility is the area of legal practice that encompasses the duties of attorneys to act in a professional manner, obey the law, avoid conflicts of interest, and put the interests of clients ahead of their own interests....

.
SMU Press 2005 ISBN 0-87074-503-4
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction
In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction gathers the best essays published in Creative Nonfiction over its first ten years of publication to create a book - part writing-manual, part prose anthology - that reflects what creative nonfiction writing is really about: Good, old-fashioned reporting...

Twenty-five essays, all originally appearing in Creative Nonfiction, republished in honor of the journal's tenth anniversary. W.W. Norton  2005 ISBN 0-393-32665-9
On Nature: Great Writers on the Great Outdoors Twenty original and previously published essays Jeremy P. Tarcher 2002 ISBN 1-58542-173-1
Healing: 20 Prominent Authors Write About Inspirational Moments of Achieving Health and Gaining Insight Twenty original and previously published essays Jeremy P. Tarcher 2001 ISBN 1-58542-079-4
Lessons in Persuasion: Creative Nonfiction/Pittsburgh Connections Eighteen essays written by writers with ties to the city of Pittsburgh. University of Pittsburgh Press
University of Pittsburgh Press
The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States....

 
2000 ISBN 0-8229-5715-9
Connecting: Twenty Prominent Authors Write About the Relationships That Shape Our Lives Twenty original and previously published essays Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam 1998 ISBN 0-87477-904-9
A View from the Divide: Creative Nonfiction on Health and Science Seventeen essays that attempt to demonstrate the many ways in which aspects of the scientific world—from biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

--can be captured and dramatized for a humanities-oriented
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

readership.
University of Pittsburgh Press 1998 ISBN 978-0822956853

Sources

Other major sources used in this article but not (always) in-line cited:
  • Lee Gutkind's Website
  • Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2007. PEN (Permanent Entry Number): 0000040630.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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