Awards

• Commended for Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards (Autobiography/Memoir) 2022

Overview

If This Were Fiction is a love story-for Jill Christman's long-ago fiance, who died young in a car accident; for her children; for her husband, Mark; and ultimately, for herself. In this collection, Christman takes on the wide range of situations and landscapes she encountered on her journey from wild child through wounded teen to mother, teacher, writer, and wife. In these pages there are fatal accidents and miraculous births; a grief pilgrimage that takes Christman to jungles, volcanoes, and caves in Central America; and meditations on everything from sexual trauma and the more benign accidents of childhood to gun violence, indoor cycling, unlikely romance, and even a ghost or two. Playing like a lively mixtape in both subject and style, If This Were Fiction focuses an open-hearted, frequently funny, clear-eyed feminist lens on Christman's first fifty years and sends out a message of love, power, and hope.

Full Product Details

9781496232359

Table of Contents

Reviews

Reading these essays is like hanging out with a true friend, someone who isn't afraid to be real. Jill Christman writes about love, loss, trauma, fear, parenthood, and the strange wonder of our past and former selves with deep understanding, humor, and so much beauty. -Beth (Bich Minh) Nguyen, author of Stealing Buddha's Dinner If This Were Fiction is the collection I wish I had the talent and skill to write. Christman's words shine with unusual beauty and hard-earned brilliance. -Ashley C. Ford, author of Somebody's Daughter What is more complex than love, marriage, motherhood, and family? Probably nothing, but Jill Christman takes the deep dive, with intelligent, intense, intimate essays that will catch you off-guard and leave you wanting more. If This Were Fiction is a piercing book by a brilliant, gutsy writer. -Dinty W. Moore, author of To Hell with It Engaging and distinctive. Christman brings intelligence, wit, and insightful honesty to her personal experiences with motherhood, womanhood, and girlhood, to abuse and its legacies, to the search for joy, creative expression, and love. Moving, beautifully written, and often quite funny. -Megan Harlan, author of Mobile Home: A Memoir in Essays

Reading these essays is like hanging out with a true friend, someone who isn't afraid to be real. Jill Christman writes about love, loss, trauma, fear, parenthood, and the strange wonder of our past and former selves with deep understanding, humor, and so much beauty. -Beth (Bich Minh) Nguyen, author of Stealing Buddha's Dinner If This Were Fiction is the collection I wish I had the talent and skill to write. Christman's words shine with unusual beauty and hard-earned brilliance. -Ashley C. Ford, author of Somebody's Daughter What is more complex than love, marriage, motherhood, and family? Probably nothing, but Jill Christman takes the deep dive, with intelligent, intense, intimate essays that will catch you off guard and leave you wanting more. If This Were Fiction is a piercing book by a brilliant, gutsy writer. -Dinty W. Moore, author of To Hell with It Engaging and distinctive. Christman brings intelligence, wit, and insightful honesty to her personal experiences with motherhood, womanhood, and girlhood, to abuse and its legacies, to the search for joy, creative expression, and love. Moving, beautifully written, and often quite funny. -Megan Harlan, author of Mobile Home: A Memoir in Essays

Author Information

Jill Christman is the author of two memoirs, Darkroom: A Family Exposure and Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood. She is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Ball State University, a senior editor of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, and executive producer for the podcast Indelible: Campus Sexual Violence.  

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