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 w