Blurring the Boundaries: Explorations to the Fringes of Nonfiction

by B.J. Hollars (Editor)

Contemporary discussions on nonfiction are often riddled with questions about the boundaries between truth and memory, honesty and artifice, facts and lies.  Just how much truth is in nonfiction?  How much is a lie? Blurring the Boundaries sets out to answer such questions while simultaneously exploring the limits of the form. This collection features twenty genre-bending essays from today’s most renowned teachers and writers—including original work from Michael Martone, Marcia Aldrich, Dinty W. Moore, Lia Purpura, and Robin Hemley, among others. These essays experiment with structure, style, and subject matter, and each is accompanied by the writer’s personal reflection on the work itself, illuminating his or her struggles along the way. As these innovative writers stretch the limits of genre, they take us with them, offering readers a front-row seat to an ever-evolving form. Readers also receive a practical approach to craft thanks to the unique writing exercises provided by the writers themselves. Part groundbreaking nonfiction collection, part writing reference, Blurring the Boundaries serves as the ideal book for literary lovers and practitioners of the craft. 

Genres: Essays, Writing, Nonfiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

B.J. Hollars is the author of several books, most recently Wisconsin for Kennedy: The Primary That Launched a President and Changed The Course of History, Year of Plenty: A Family's Season of Grief, Go West Young Man: A Father and Son Rediscover America on the Oregon Trail, Midwestern Strange: Hunting Monsters, Martians and the Weird in Flyover Country, The Road South: Personal Stories of the Freedom Riders, Flock Together: A Love Affair With Extinct Birds, From the Mouths of Dogs: What Our Pets Teach Us About Life, Death, and Being Human, as well as a collection of essays, This Is Only A Test. Additionally, he has also written Thirteen Loops: Race, Violence and the Last Lynching in America, Opening the Doors: The Desegregation of the University of Alabama and the Fight for Civil Rights in Tuscaloosa, Dispatches from the Drownings, and Sightings. He and his film partner, Steve Dayton, have also completed a documentary When Rubber Hit The Road,

Hollars is the recipient of the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Nonfiction, the Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize, the Council of Wisconsin Writers' Blei-Derleth Award, the Society of Midland Authors Award, and received a 2022 silver medal from the Midwest Book Awards.

He is the founder and executive director of the Chippewa Valley Writers Guild and the Midwest Artist Academy, as well as a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and a columnist for The Leader-Telegram. He lives a simple existence with his family.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to read this anhtology out of context, to not compare it to the _Rose Metal Press Guide to Flash Fiction_, which aims to do a similar thing, gathering together a selection of non-fiction writers to talk about craft and show their wares. And for me, at least, this collection wasn't quite as successful. It's not that any of the work here is bad, it just didn't jazz me the way some of the essays in that other volume did.

There is good work here-- Martone's essay on Bell's Palsy is very good, Monson's follow-up craft essay outline to his earlier outline essay had a lot to recommend it. I could read that Eula Bliss "Time and Distance Overcome" a dozen more times before I get bored with it. Dinty Moore is almost always good, and Robin Henley's essay was interesting, though maybe (by design) incomplete. I liked Naomi Campbell's open-form piece, and I thought that Dybek's reminiscence definite made me wonder if that shit really happened. There's good work here, it's just that the other volume for me was pound-for-pound the clear favorite.

[Robert Day · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the stories were weird and others were really weird. The weird ones reminded me of my writing, which kind of weirded me out.

The best part of the book is the exercises section at the back. I did them all. I wrote some very weird stuff that felt right at home on my blog: www.robertcday.wordpress.com. I like doing exercises. They stretch me. Usually. Most of these didn't. I was, like - this is the way I already do it.

So, yeah - preaching to the converted this book is.

If you want to get into nonfiction (creative non-fiction) then this book is for you. If you're already there, then give it a miss.

[Bryan Parys · Rating 2 out of 5]

A really fantastic idea--giving essayists the chance to write some "experimental" nonfiction and then write a quick reflection on their process--but ultimately falls flat. The essay on meeting Motley Crue offers nothing but a fan's story of meeting Motley Crue. What lines are blurred there? Solid authors (unnamed since I otherwise like their work and feel weird about slamming non-canonical work) offer dialed in pieces that don't really elucidate why they find themselves on the borders. Feel like this one deserves a redo since I could see a successful version becoming indispensable.

[Melissa Matthewson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of genre bending essays. I appreciate the comments by writers after each section as well as writing exercises at the end.

[Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a collection of "genre-bending" essays. A few essays are written in different forms (example: The Harvard Outline). They're creative nonfiction, which is a genre that encompasses memoirs and narratives. I found the essays interesting. I recommend the book.

[Kelly Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A welcome update to John D'Agata's The Next American Essay (2003,) B.J. Hollars has assembled an illuminating collection of genre bending essays. I'm planning on using Blurring the Boundaries in my upper division nonfiction workshop this fall. The book features a reflection by each essayist on their piece (the reflections sometimes rivaling the actual essays!) and thoughtful writing exercises in the back. As with all anthologies, some works are stronger than others, but anyone interested in craft, form, and word play should find a great deal to work with here.

[Bridgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book of essays.