The lifespan of a fact
By: John D'Agata and Jim Fingal
Contributors: Fingal, Jim
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: W. W. Norton; W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 128
ISBN-13: 9780393340730
Subjects: Essay; Authorship; Creative nonfiction
Description: How negotiable is a fact in nonfiction? In 2003, an essay by John D'Agata was rejected by the magazine that commissioned it due to factual inaccuracies. That essay--which eventually became the foundation of D'Agata's critically acclaimed About a Mountain--was accepted by another magazine, but not before they handed it to their own fact-checker, Jim Fingal. What resulted from that assignment was seven years of arguments, negotiations, and revisions as D'Agata and Fingal struggled to navigate the boundaries of literary nonfiction. What emerges is a brilliant and eye-opening meditation on the relationship between "truth" and "accuracy" and a penetrating conversation about whether it is appropriate for a writer to substitute one for the other"--P. [4] of cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.