Truth in Nonfiction: Essays

by David Lazar (Editor)

Overview

Even before the controversy that surrounded the publication of A Million Little Pieces, the question of truth has been at the heart of memoir. From Elie Wiesel to Benjamin Wilkomirski to David Sedaris, the veracity of writers’ claims has been suspect. In this fascinating and timely collection of essays, leading writers meditate on the subject of truth in literary nonfiction. As David Lazar writes in his introduction, “How do we verify? Do we care to? (Do we dare to eat the apple of knowledge and say it’s true? Or is it a peach?) Do we choose to? Is it a subcategory of faith? How do you respond when someone says, ‘This is really true’? Why do they choose to say it then?”

The past and the truth are slippery things, and the art of nonfiction writing requires the writer to shape as well as explore. In personal essays, meditations on the nature of memory, considerations of the genres of memoir, prose poetry, essay, fiction, and film, the contributors to this provocative collection attempt to find answers to the question of what truth in nonfiction means.

Contributors: John D’Agata, Mark Doty, Su Friedrich, Joanna Frueh, Ray González, Vivian Gornick, Barbara Hammer, Kathryn Harrison, Marianne Hirsch, Wayne Koestenbaum, Leonard Kriegel, David Lazar, Alphonso Lingis, Paul Lisicky, Nancy Mairs, Nancy K. Miller, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Phyllis Rose, Oliver Sacks, David Shields, and Leo Spitzer

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781587297311
Publisher:	University of Iowa Press
Publication date:	11/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	212
File size:	822 KB

About the Author

David Lazar is the director of the nonfiction writing program at Columbia College Chicago, a professor in the Department of English, and the editor of Hotel Amerika. He is the author of The Body of Brooklyn (Iowa, 2003), Michael Powell: Interviews, Conversations with M. F. K. Fisher, and a book of prose poems, Powder Town. Four of his essays have been named Notable Essays of the Year by Best American Essays.

Table of Contents

An Introduction to Truth David Lazar A Weedy Garden Paul Lisick Truth in Personal Narrative Vivian Gornick Bride in Beige Mark Doty The Forest of Memory Kathryn Harrison ÀLa Verdad?: Notes on the Writing of Silent Dancing: A Partial Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood (a Memoir in Prose and Poetry) Judith Ortiz Cofer Whose Truth? Phyllis Rose The Ethics of Betrayal: Diary of a Conundrum Nancy K. Miller Gowers' Memory Oliver Sacks Mer-Mer: An Essay about How I Wish We Wrote Our Nonfictions John D'Agata Reality, Persona David Shields Trying Truth Nancy Mairs The Observer Observing: Some Notes on the Personal Essay Leonard Kriegel The Rape of Rusty Wayne Koestenbaum The Bed of the Fairy Princess Joanna Frueh The Kazakh Eagle Alphonso Lingis The True Frame of the Prose Poem Ray Gonzalez Tender Fictions Barbara Hammer Seeing (through) Red Su Friedrich What's Wrong with this Picture? Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer

Editorial Reviews

At last, as engrossing and intellectually sophisticated and varied a discussion of these sticky topical issues as one could ever hope to find. What makes the book even better is that so many of these pieces are stunning essays in their own right.”—Phillip Lopate, author, Getting Personal: Selected Writings


“The issue of truth in nonfiction is a heated topic. . . . This collection is an absolutely necessary addition to the subject—and it’s absolutely necessary right now, given the amount of attention our culture pays to the subject with all those endless reviews on imposters, Oprah, and so forth.”—Lia Purpura, author, On Looking: Essays

From the Publisher