Stranger Than Fiction: The Art of Literary Journalism

by William McKeen

One of the reasons I didn’t major in journalism is because in my first attempt to take a course in the field, the professor began the class by asking, “What is news?” There followed a ninety-minute discussion of possible definitions, as a bunch of squirming eighteen-year-olds tried to come up with something that sounded serious enough to please the professor. At the end of that first class, the professor smiled smugly and said, “Well, of course, it can’t be defined.” I, for one, was steamed. I thought, “Then why in the hell did you waste ninety minutes of my precious time on this Earth trying to define something that can’t be defined?”

And so I majored in history. But after working for newspapers and magazines, I became a journalism professor and I usually toss out that little anecdote at the beginning of every class. It’s my way of saying that we’re not here to waste time, but that a lot of what we do cannot be nailed down. We can’t say we have the definitive answer, because one may not exist.

This course is my take on literary journalism. It’s about this kind of storytelling, but it’s clearly told through my eyes. Take this elephant over to someone else and he or she might have a different idea. But this is the way I see it, and I hope this is helpful as you develop your own way of seeing.

Genres: Journalism, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Literature

Audiobook

About the author

Author of Mile Marker Zero, Outlaw Journalist, Highway 61, Rock and Roll is Here to Stay and several other books, William McKeen teaches at Boston University and chairs its department of journalism. He lives on the rocky coast of Cohasset, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts with a bit of history, using a passage from Mark Twain that I enjoy (from Roughing It?), then dives into post-WWII writers. Covered are John Hersey, Norman Mailer, Gay Talese, Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson, and a few others. This was mostly a survey class of literary journalism by author, but I really liked an early lecture describing what that really means. The instructor had the right amount of humor for the material. The samples that were included were narrated well. I would certainly listed to another audio class by this instructor.

[Pat Rolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book CD on so many levels. Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Gay Talese and Hunter S. Thompson are featured to name a few. The author provides excerpts of the writing of these authors in addition to their biographical highlights and the overall result is a riveting and very entertaining literary history. He tops it off with recommended reading throughout the lectures and in the final chapter adds numerous must reads in summary.

[DL Link · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great lecturer, lots of information I didn't know, but brought about in an interesting fashion. Love the story about Hemingway.

[Chu Qiao · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of sudden I realized that I love the way of Journalism to tell a story with complicated fabrics of facts and emotions, and spices of personal bias and feelings.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

This lecture series thoroughly defined what is literary journalism from a historical perspective, in chronological order.

[Megan Mosher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Technically a series of lectures, this was a fantastic look into the individuals foundational to the birth of new or literary journalism. The lives they lived and the techniques they used were all instructive and I will be using this not only to point to resources for my classes, but also to build my journalism TBR!

[Laurel · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at some of the most successful literary journalists, such as John Hersey, Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, Joan Didion, George Plimpton, etc.