Prospect is a bi-annual anthology of nonfiction writing selected from work produced by students taking creative nonfiction and advanced nonfiction writing courses in the Nonfiction Writing Program at Brown University. For assistance contact bdr@brown.edu

Introductory courses in the Nonfiction Writing Program offer students a chance to practice the basics of creative nonfiction narrative and essay writing. Students are introduced to a range of literary techniques drawn from fiction and poetry, techniques of style, language and story-telling chosen to enrich the kinds of reflection, observation, analysis, research and reporting essential to fact-based writing. Advanced courses are intended for students who show potential for professional standards of writing. Advanced writers produce work in specialized genres such as memoir, lifewriting (including diaries and letters), literary journalism, travel writing, science writing, historical narrative, literary cultural analysis, the personal essay, the lyric essay, the exploratory and experimental essay. The goal of the anthology is to demonstrate, as the literary critic Sven Birkerts says, "What happens in the world...is far more unlikely and interesting than what a novelist can invent."

The name "Prospect" was chosen for the anthology because the department wanted a Brown name with Providence connections, and connotations of journeying, moving forward, pioneering, sailing to new waters. Prospect Street holds the libraries from which some of the stories and essays come, and it ends at Horace Mann (former home of the English department), where this anthology was originally conceived. Prospect represents the myriad venues for which students construct, revise, and perform their pieces -- with the prospect of possible publication, here and elsewhere.

The pieces featured in each issue of Prospect represent some of the best writing coming out of both introductory and advanced classes in the Nonfiction Writing Program. The winter issue includes the winner of the Barbara Banks Brodsky Award for Excellence in Real World Writing, a contest held each fall. The spring issue also includes award-winning entries from the Casey Shearer Award in Creative Nonfiction, a contest held each spring semester. Submissions to Prospect are by invitation of the editors, Beth Taylor and Catherine Imbriglio. We hope the pieces found here will serve as inspiration, not only for the writers in the program, but for nonfiction writers everywhere.