Genre Spotlight: Literary Nonfiction

Are you a "Fiction Person" or a "Nonfiction Person" or a "Poetry Person"?

Each genre of writing seems to attract a tight knit group of readers who identify with at least one of these labels.

Are You a "Fiction Person" or a "Nonfiction Person"?

When I first started reading (and writing) literary nonfiction, I was convinced that I was a fiction-lover at heart and that the experience would be interesting but that I'd ultimately go back to my fantasy novels. Oh how I was wrong.

I brought up this betrayal (of my fiction-loving identity I'd crafted for myself) during a conversation with a locally recognized literary nonfiction author and they said something that stuck with me:
 
"You know you don't have to choose. You can love both."
 
Such a simple concept I had lost amid our cultural definitions of genre and one that I was overjoyed to be reminded of!

What makes it "Literary"?

When my partner asked me this question I hesitated, trying to think of a succinct way I could explain what had become, to me, a "vibe". Immediately the question feels like the setup for an incredibly pretentious answer about "high brow" literature or some such.

Turns out, what sets "literary" nonfiction apart is more about subject emphasis and narrative style. Here's what I mean by that:

When you read a nonfiction book--an autobiography, say--the events are more or less chronological and factual. When you read a textbook, the experience is similar. Now history, self help... you get the idea. This is what I'd always thought of as nonfiction before making the effort to learn more about it. (Booooring!)

Literary nonfiction uses narrative styles and craft elements from fiction stories. The story may be true, but the way the story is told can jump through time and is told from one perspective (usually). The emphasis of the subject matter is set pretty firmly in the introspective, sometimes verging on the philosophical. Literary nonfiction books might encompass memoir or other life writing, essays, and collections of stories--even poetry!

In literary nonfiction, the events of the story are less important than how they impacted the person telling the story. The events become a tool or "way in" to examining the bigger question of what it is to be human, the evolution of our own psychology, or cultural expectations.

Don't Choose

Once I accepted my love for nonfiction, I began to nurture it, diving into big questions and intense stories that kept me glued to the page just like my fantasy novels had. Maybe it was thanks to their narrative style that the essays and books I read were familiar and resonated in a way that sounded like my own thoughts. Maybe it was another reason that drew me to this distinctive style of writing.

It turns out that though the craft of literary nonfiction writing borrows many elements from fiction, the genre has very much adopted and adapted them for its purposes. The process of writing and editing literary nonfiction is certainly different from fiction and has it own nuances and genre conventions just like any other genre (even if it's technically closer to fiction than academic or autobiography).

If you're on the edge of deciding whether you might enjoy nonfiction, as someone who's always read and found comfort in fiction, I urge you to take a chance and see what it's all about. It's not as dry or boring as you might think. (And if it is, then you know yourself a little bit better now.)

I pass this along to you then: love what you love. You don't have to choose.

Recommendations

The work I read that introduced me to the genre and stole a piece of my heart ranges from graphic novels to essays to memoir and full length books. If you're looking for a place to start, I recommend investigating which of these might resonate with you:

Essays/Short Form (free pdfs):
On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
The Fourth State of Matter by Jo Ann Beard
​The Pain Scale by Eula Biss

Books/Long Form (buy or request from your library):
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (graphic novel)
​The Guardians by Sarah Manguso
In the Wilderness by Kim Barnes
Educated by Tara Westover
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine