"The story is always true," said writer Lee Gutkind. "This is what you learn in creative nonfiction writing: to be a sneak, to be a fly on a wall, to find a story." With those words, Gutkind explained the essence of creative nonfiction to an audience of Ithaca students, faculty, and community members. Gutkind was on campus as part of the Department of Writing's Distinguished Visiting Writers series. The prolific author spent several days at Ithaca, offering a public lecture and reading, along with master classes for Ithaca students.

Gutkind has been described as the godfather of the creative nonfiction movement. He is counted along with Norman Mailer, Gay Talese, and Hunter S. Thompson as a pioneer in the field. In addition to authoring numerous books and articles, he is founding editor of the journal Creative Nonfiction.

Creative nonfiction blends the storytelling of fiction writing with the nuts-and-bolts reporting of journalism. It frees writers to report stories through a personal viewpoint while providing readers a compelling narrative that yields deeper truths than straight journalism. "If you look at the creative nonfiction world now, the heart and soul is not there because of journalists who entered the field; it's because of the poets and fiction writers who entered and began experimenting with nonfiction," he said. "Literary techniques that fiction writers are allowed to use we are now allowed—even encouraged—to use as nonfiction writers."

Gutkind's work on campus in a week of master writing classes provided a payoff for Ithaca students. Senior Meg Favreau, a writing major, attended several of Gutkind's master classes and came away inspired. "I got into writing through creative nonfiction, and I had sort of fallen away from it," Favreau told a reporter from the Ithacan. "His visit has gotten me excited about it again."