Writing About Objects

Crafting Nonfiction From Things
A guide to writing about objects in creative nonfiction, this book explores the potential of material things and what people can learn about the world and themselves through them.

People are obsessed with objects: the memories they hold, the thoughts they inspire, the skills they showcase, their monetary value, and what they communicate to others. This book guides creative nonfiction writers through crafting prose inspired by the material things in their lives. Combining ideas from the fields of creative writing, rhetoric and composition and qualitative inquiry, it investigates how authors examine the cultural and personal significance of objects and offers new approaches for how writers might use personal experience and theoretical context to get the most out of object writing.

Melissa Tombro draws on her experience as a third-generation antiques dealer and professor of writing and gender studies to explore the power of materiality in storytelling and how we come to understand ourselves and others based on what is owned, valued, and discarded. Through case studies, personal writing, theory and literature, the book considers topics and ideas including: collecting and collections, cultural and monetary value of objects, family history and nostalgia, gender in relation to objects, public collections and archives, inherited objects, garbage and recycled objects, objects and status, generational trends and fads, and objects in the age of social media.

Providing the foundations for writerly growth by engaging in cultural analysis, autoethnographic inquiry, narrative building, and personal reflection, Writing About Objects presents original assignments and prompts to extend writers’ thinking outside of the self and towards the larger cultural sphere. This is not just a how-to guide but an exploration of how people collect, value and engage with the things around them.

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