He’s back! And this time (see photo) he’s at the house of explorer Roald Amundsen, just outside Oslo. In response to a raucous clamor, the Dr. Jekyll in me has clawed his way onto your screen to
announce an online course in Creative Nonfiction. It’s called The Art of Fact: An Introduction to Writing Nonfiction, and it’s available through the University of Toronto. We
launch on January 25, 2016 . . . and quite a few folks have already
come aboard from hither and yon. Just sayin’.  The particulars look
something like this: “The hallmarks of
Creative, Literary or Narrative Nonfiction are truth and personal
presence. The
genre includes subjective and objective streams, and encompasses memoir,
autobiography, biography, history, adventure, travel, and true crime.
The
writer of nonfiction employs memory, imagination, analysis, and
research, and
adapts literary techniques from fiction, journalism, and the essay. This
craft-oriented course aims to enhance your ability to tell true
stories.”
You can find out more at the link above.  In the past, folks have
“attended” from as far away as Japan and Uganda. Oh, and we do have a
favourite text:
Textbook: The Art of Fact: A Historical Anthology of Literary Journalism,
edited by Kevin Kerrane and Ben Yagoda. (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, ISBN
0-684-84630-6).  Wherever you are, come on out. (Special welcome if you know who Amundsen is!)