Nonfiction guru Patsy Sims on the virtue of playing it straight

Source: Urbanite
Author: David Dudley
Publication Date: August 04, 2008

Article Abstract:

Patsy Sims, the director of Goucher College’s MFA program in creative nonfiction, discusses what constitutes authenticity in autobiography.

Lead:

The nonfiction bestseller lists are littered with questionable memoirs; a host of unscrupulous scribes have been taken to task lately for stretches, overreaches, and outright fantasies. Most notoriously, there was James Frey—he of A Million Little Pieces, the 2003 memoir that purported to chronicle a spiral into addiction. In 2006, after it was revealed that several episodes in the book were fabricated, Frey earned a televised spanking from Oprah Winfrey and a lead role in the rogue’s gallery of literary fabulists.

Link to Article: http://www.urbanitebaltimore.com/sub.cfm?issueID=63&sectionID=4&articleID=1004
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