In Acetylene Torch Songs, Sue William Silverman mixes memoir and craft lessons to illustrate how a writer’s imagination creates metaphor, literary masks, sensory memories, and voice on the page. Utilizing twenty-five years of teaching experience, Silverman offers guided prompts, worksheets, checklists, publishing advice, personal essays, and strategies to encourage writers at any stage to find the confidence to write their truths. Through instruction and inspiration, this book demonstrates the intersection of creativity, craft, and courage needed to write creative nonfiction. “This genre possesses double vision—the author’s ability to see a past experience joined with present awareness—thus heightening the intensity. Unlike real life, creative nonfiction is both microscopic and telescopic. It’s crucial to envision the smallest detail of a life while also presenting that detail in a way that reflects an entire world. Real life lacks metaphors. Creative nonfiction births them,” writes Silverman.
