An interview on truth in nonfiction with Shelagh Rogers

With just-the-facts-ma’am journalism, it’s easy to separate verifiable fact from… stuff that’s not. But thanks to the growing popularity of literary journalism — applying novelistic techniques to real-life situations — some critics charge the lines between fact and fiction are becoming increasingly blurred.

In his talk, “Truth, Lies and Nonfiction,” at The University Club of Toronto on January 29, 2009, Stephen Kimber, an award-winning author and the Rogers Communications Chair in Journalism at the University of King’s College, explored this shifting literary landscape – from Dafoe’s Journal of the Plague Year to the latest fake Holocaust memoir/Oprah controversy — and explained why the truth still matters.

You can also hear Stephen’s interview on the same subject with Shelagh Rogers of CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter:

Or read Kimber’s Q&A on the same subject with Tina Novotny, the  editor of The Writers’ Union of Canada newsletter.

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  STEPHEN KIMBER, the Rogers Communications Chair in Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of one novel -- Reparations -- and eight non-fiction books.