If it is true that “only a fool believes what he reads in the newspapers,” then the task of the creative nonfiction writer is to accomplish the same goal as newspapers — i.e., to communicate a partial, yet objective truth — but to do so with a richness that only a fool could deny.
Keeping the Faith
My mother’s funeral homily told the story of a faithful life and a faithful death. It was a good homily, built from an obituary, a conversation, and a parish archive. It couldn’t know what those sources leave out: the decades she stayed away from the Church, and why she chose it anyway.
September 27, 2026