You gotta love a manifesto - it takes chutzpah to get up on your soapbox and tell the world how things should be done. Well, a couple of hip, young, British writers are ruffling feathers with their cheeky new manifesto for prose writers. In this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, writing fiction the New Puritan Way. Plus, superstar author Margaret Atwood.

British writers Matt Thorne and Nicholas Blincoe call themselves The New Puritans in a ten-point manifesto on how to write fiction. They tell Jim Fleming that they value narrative above all else and react to a clip from another interview with writer Jeannette Winterson who disagrees with, and disses, their techniques. Blincoe and Thorne have published a short story collection called "All Hail the New Puritans." Also, Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood reads an excerpt from, and tells Steve Paulson about her new novel, "The Blind Assassin," which just won this year's Booker Prize for fiction.

Alexandra Johnson is the author of "Leaving A Trace" and an expert on journal-keeping. She tells Jim Fleming that there's no such thing as an ordinary life, and gives suggestions for getting started on a personal chronicle. Also, satirist Neal Pollack reads from "The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature" and tells Steve Paulson why he decided to skewer the excesses of the lions of the New Journalism.

Bay area film-maker David Yanofsky talks with Anne Strainchamps about his documentary "Poetic License," which examines the role of teenagers in the phenomenon of national poetry slams. He says these young people produce some great work, and that poetry helps them deal with their life experiences and the special problems of being young in America today. And we hear clips from the film.

Distribution dates:

• week of 02/04/2001 - hour 2