The Creative Nonfiction Foundation was founded in 1994 by author and University of Pittsburgh professor Lee Gutkind, to introduce and establish legitimacy to the genre that he and others called creative nonfiction--fact-driven stories, written as narratives that would both inform and entertain readers. In the 1960s and early 1970s, this accessible style of writing was called “new journalism,” popularized by Norman Mailer Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe and many others.

That same year, Gutkind launched Creative Nonfiction, the first and largest literary publication to publish creative or narrative nonfiction exclusively. In response to its growing popularity, soon recognized as the “voice of the genre,” the Foundation sponsored conferences in Pittsburgh, Oxford, Mississippi, and at Goucher College in Towson, Maryland. A creative nonfiction book imprint, In Fact Books, was established in 2012, publishing collections of essays exploring topics such as death and dying, and the challenges of mental illness. A second magazine, a unique pocket size monthly publication featuring one long form creative nonfiction essay, True Story, was introduced in 2017. An education program attracted thousands of students from across the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In 2025, after thirty successful years, the Foundation donated its archives to the Gumberg Library at Duquesne University.