The impressive sales of non-fiction works such as Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" and Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm" has focused popular and critical attention on the rapidly growing popularity of a genre of literature that is now often referred to as creative or literary nonfiction. In this writing intensive class, we will consider the question of how this type of writing differs from other types of non-fiction. We will examine some of these other literary forms, including the personal essay, the natural history essay, and the memoir, and will compare and contrast the literary techniques used by writers of such works. Each student will be expected to produce three or four finished essay-length works. Offered every 2-3 years.