Experimental memoirs have proliferated in recent years under many guises: sometimes called lyric essays or autotheory, these works often hybridize different forms, including poetry, essay, and memoir. Truman Capote’s true crime blockbuster
In Cold Blood, one of the first books to apply fiction techniques to hard reporting, is often cited as the grandfather of creative nonfiction. But, while the genre’s most exciting contemporary practitioners share Capote’s innovative spirit, the demographics and politics have shifted. Today, autotheory’s most acclaimed voices are nonmale, nonwhite, or queer. (Capote was himself gay.) Their experimental forms are often driven by the need to write themselves back into cultural scripts from which they have been shut out, such as the privileged status given to heterosexuality and whiteness. High-profile examples include Maggie Nelson’s