Lee Gutkind on Waiting

Issue 59 of Creative Nonfiction is themed Waiting. In his editorial, “What’s the Story?” Lee Gutkind examines many of his own experiences with waiting – as an editor, as a writer, as a coffee consumer. He also considers the role he plays in the lives of others and their waiting to hear about submissions they’ve sent in to CNF, that process, and why there is so much waiting for others to do.

The word waiting appears 35 times in the 1000-word essay, and while I can empathize with the frustrations shared with each recounting, there’s also something oddly humorous about it – most likely because it’s not me doing the waiting. But I certainly know the experience of waiting at Starbucks only to be next in line behind the guy who “asked the barista twenty questions about the breakfast choices and the oatmeal toppings.”

This issue also includes the essay “Any Given Day” by Judith Kitchen, submitted specifically for this issue prior to her passing August 20, 2014, and the essay “A Genre by Any Other Name?: The Story Behind ‘Creative Nonfiction” by Dinty W. Moore. Gutkind’s and Moore’s essays can be read online as well as “Sleepless in Any City: Insomnia in Lorca’s Madrid” by Janine Zeitlin for readers to get a sample of the publication’s content.