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Literary Fiction

My last entry quot­ed research about the impor­tance and val­ue of read­ing lit­er­ary fic­tion. But lit­er­ary fic­tion is a rather vague term. More­over, for some in the world of edu­ca­tion and pub­lish­ing, it even has a neg­a­tive con­no­ta­tion. (“Kids won’t read it!”)  For oth­ers, it is a pos­i­tive term. (“My stu­dents adore your writ­ing.”) But what exact­ly is “lit­er­ary fiction?” 

Alice McDermottNation­al Book Award win­ner, Alice McDer­mott, author of the cur­rent best­selling nov­el Some­one, said this in a recent PBS inter­view: “We are sur­round­ed by sto­ry. Sto­ry is very acces­si­ble to us, more so than ever. But what I think lit­er­ary fic­tion [does] is raise the lev­el of the sen­tence to be as impor­tant as the sto­ry the sen­tence tells. The rhythm, the beau­ty, the music of it is as impor­tant as char­ac­ter and plot.” Which is to say, if the writer aspires to lit­er­ary fic­tion, the way one writes is as impor­tant as what we write.

1 thought on “Literary Fiction”

  1. I think that’s a very good def­i­n­i­tion of lit­er­ary fic­tion, which is my love. I remem­ber read­ing some time back that you read your writ­ing to oth­er peo­ple, which I imag­ine your writ­ing is so beautiful.

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