Documentary Fictions

More and more of the best American fiction, plays, and even comics are being created out of documentary practices such as in-depth interviewing, oral histories, memoir, and reporting. Novels like Dave Eggers’ What is the What, plays like Anna Deavere Smith’s Lay Me Down Easy, and memoir-journalism like Sarah Broom’s The Yellow House, all act as both witnesses and translators of people’s direct experience and push art into social activism in new ways. 

In this course students will examine the research methods, artistic craft, and ethics of these rich, genre-bending works and then create documentary fictions of their own. We’ll explore work by Eggers, Smith, Joan Didion, Truman Capote, Lisa Taddeo, Francisco Cantú, and Rebecca Skloot. And Sarah Broom, winner of the 2019 National Book Award, will visit the class. Note: First priority to undergrads. No prior creative writing or journalism experience required.

Instructor: Jonah Willihnganz.