HONESTY does matter not only to politicians, but also to creative nonfiction writers.
Award-winning author Susan Lara urged aspiring writers to be honest in writing creative nonfiction by subjecting one’s self and one’s work to “relentless self-questioning.”
“[Y]ou can do anything with it as long as you are writing something real. [‘W]ag talagang mag-imbento,” said Lara during a creative nonfiction workshop last March 30 at the Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street in Taguig.
A creative nonfiction writer should always put “verifiable facts” in their works, Lara said.
“If you change the name, the gender, the name of the hospital, the city, ah wala na, hindi na ‘yon creative nonfiction,” she added.
Lara, a regular panelist for fiction of the Varsitarian-organized Creative Writing Workshop, won first prize in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature in 1984 for her short story “The Reprieve.”
She also won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1997 for her “Letting Go and Other Stories.”
The event was organized by Write Things, a creative writing center for kids, teens and adults.
