Telling True Stories: The Power and the Pitfalls of Writing Narrative Non-fiction (Matthew Ricketson, A&U)

Matthew Ricketson (Writing Feature Stories, 2004) is professor of journalism at the University of Canberra and has worked as a journalist at the Age, the Australian and Time Australia. Writing as an academic and practitioner, his latest book is part scholarly analysis, part how-to guide. Ricketson examines the ethics and aesthetics of researching and writing long-form journalism, literary journalism, narrative nonfiction and creative nonfiction, which all come under the ‘true story’ umbrella, with an emphasis on newspapers, magazines and book-length narrative nonfiction. Some of the controversial issues explored include the relationship between writer and source; maintaining editorial independence; the narrator’s voice; the dilemma of reconstructing scenes and dialogue when you weren’t there; and meeting the expectations of the reader. Ricketson presents case studies drawn from a range of sources, including interviews with Malcolm Knox, Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, David Marr and Margaret Simons. He analyses their seminal works and others by Janet Malcolm, Truman Capote and Anna Funder. The discussions around Garner’s The First Stone, Capote’s In Cold Blood, and the work of Janet Malcolm are particularly interesting. There is an extensive bibliography consisting of primary and secondary sources and various narrative nonfiction works. This is recommended for aspiring and established writers of narrative nonfiction, journalists and journalism students.

Paula Grunseit is a freelance journalist, editor and reviewer

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Category: Reviews