Definition:
Prose accounts of real people, places, objects, or events. Types of nonfiction include essays, autobiographies, biographies, and memoirs. See also: Creative Nonfiction.
Etymology:
From the Latin, "not" + "shaping, feigning"Observations:
- "I see no reason why the word [artist] should always be confined to writers of fiction and poetry while the rest of us are lumped together under that despicable term 'Nonfiction'--as if we were some sort of remainder. I do not feel like a Non-something; I feel quite specific. I wish I could think of a name in place of 'Nonfiction.' In the hope of finding an antonym I looked up 'Fiction' in Webster and found it defined as opposed to 'Fact, Truth, and Reality.' I thought for a while of adopting FTR, standing for Fact, Truth, and Reality, as my new term, but it is awkward to use."
(Barbara Tuchman, "The Historian as Artist," 1966) - "It's always seemed odd to me that nonfiction is defined, not by what it is, but by what it is not. It is not fiction. But then again, it is also not poetry, or technical writing or libretto. It's like defining classical music as nonjazz."
(Philip Gerard, Creative Nonfiction, Story Press, 1996) - "Many writers and editors add 'creative' to 'nonfiction' to mollify this sense of being strange and other, and to remind readers that creative nonfiction writers are more than recorders or appliers of reason and objectivity. Certainly many readers and writers of creative nonfiction recognize that the genre can share many elements of fiction."
(Jocelyn Bartkevicius, "The Landscape of Creative Nonfiction," 1999) - "If nonfiction is where you do your best writing, or your best teaching of writing, don't be buffaloed into the idea that it's an inferior species. The only important distinction is between good writing and bad writing."
(William Zinsser, On Writing Well, 2006)
Pronunciation: non-FIX-shun
