AMF - Master Class 2 - Tea Mutonji

Master Class #2 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Alice Munro Public Library 281 Edward Street, Wingham

Master Class # 2: Blurring the lines between fiction and nonfiction with Téa Mutonji

Have you ever told a memory so wildly, people respond with, “this can’t be real?” Whether writers work in creative nonfiction or fiction, we confront this disbelief all the time. We may define creative nonfiction as “real stories disguised as fiction.” Conversely, we might define fiction as “true stories vividly told”. This workshop explores how both definitions may be combined as we negotiate a single story. Whether we tell real stories or true ones, our work uses the same muscle: we draw upon all senses to capture each idea as one would a memory. This workshop will help us unpack true stories and develop them into real stories, scraping the line between fiction and nonfiction. Together, we will use one of our five senses to relive a memory over and over again, each time through different perspective or a different part of the room, until we get further away from the “facts” and become narrators of the story that comes. When we make all these vignettes, how do we decide which is the truthful one? We write it!

Note: Please bring a photograph of a memory/scene/moment that excites you!