num_pages: 168
description: Anton Chekhov is revered as a boldly innovative playwright and short story writerbut he wrote more than just plays and stories. In Alive in the Writing an intriguing hybrid of writing guide biography and literary analysisanthropologist and novelist Kirin Narayan introduces readers to some other sides of his pithy witty observations on the writing process his life as a writer through accounts by his friends family and lovers and his venture into nonfiction through his book Sakhalin Island . By closely attending to the people who lived under the appalling conditions of the Russian penal colony on Sakhalin Chekhov showed how empirical details combined with a literary flair can bring readers face to face with distant different lives enlarging a sense of human responsibility.Highlighting this balance of the empirical and the literary Narayan calls on Chekhov to bring new energy to the writing of ethnography and creative nonfiction alike. Weaving together selections from writing by and about him with examples from other talented ethnographers and memoirists she offers practical exercises and advice on topics such as story theory place person voice and self. A new and lively exploration of ethnography Alive in the Writing shows how the genres attentive sustained connection with the lives of others can become a powerful tool for any writer.
language: English
title: Alive in the Writing: Crafting Ethnography in the Company of Chekhov
publisher: University of Chicago Press