Which Part of Non-Fiction Don't You Understand? Oh, the Non.


As a creative nonfiction writer, the topic of "truth" and "factuality" is something I imagine I'll always be discussing... but the spectrum of opinion about it will never cease to amaze me.



In 2003, I was a first-year student in the Creative Nonfiction program at Goucher College, and in one of the first days of residency, then-revered author, Vivian Gornick, spoke to us about her process... During the talk, she admitted to "composing" scenes and taking liberties with who said what. Obviously, our mentors were alarmed and the question-and-answer period was frankly intense and a little hard for us newbies to wrap our heads around. Talk about memorable.

Fellow student, Terry Greene, even wrote the controversy up for Salon.com and contributed to the standing public debate--three years before the James Frey scandal.

Even now, the sore subject continues to be discussed, the latest installment in the form of an interview Gornick gave to Fourth Genre, a respected publication in the field--calling everyone involved in the Goucher incident "uneducated" and "silly" for expecting memoir to be factual. Say what?!

Thankfully, I don't have to defend us at length, because Roy Peter Clark (another memorable speaker I met at Goucher) did a superb job of it in his response on Poynter.com. Highly recommended read!

P.S. Tim wants me to add that he thinks Gornick is a "scourge."

Posted: Sat - January 6, 2007 at 09:51 PM           |

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