Stories: Strange Men and Thinking Girls

What is the boundary between fiction and nonfiction? What happens if the line between the two is crossed? Can we possibly recall events in our lives exactly as they happened? In creative nonfiction, such as memoir, the audience expects the writer to recall things exactly as they happened, with no embellishments, re-ordering, additions, or subtractions. It seems as if authors of creative nonfiction are bound to be questioned about events, nitpicked on details, challenged on memories, and accused of portraying real-life people the "wrong" way. Yet when the writer creates fiction, it seems to go the other way: readers like to think there are parallels between an author and her stories. Readers congratulate themselves for finding the similarities between the two, and instead of focusing on the crafted story at hand, try to search out which parts are "true" and which are embellished. Does any of this matter, though; don't all stories tell a kind of truth? We have an insatiable urge to classify, to "know" the truth, but truth isn't merely a recollection of cold facts; likewise, a story isn't any less true if it's fiction.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2005

Author dc:creator

• Stephens, Cara

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rodman, Barbara
• Tait, John, 1969-
• Preston, Thomas R.

• Creative writing.
• readers
• fiction
• memoir
• autobiography
• creative nonfiction

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Stephens, Cara
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 68652167
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4833/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc4833

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc4833