The lifespan of a fact / John D'Agata and Jim Fingal.

Lifespan of a fact : John D'Agata, author, Jim Final, fact-checker

1st ed.

9780393340730 (pbk.)
0393340732 (pbk.)

New York, N.Y. : W.W. Norton, c2012.

English

123 p. ; 24 cm.

PN145 .D25 2012

808.02

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.

Includes bibliographical references.

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