How to keep a diary: a series

From a craft talk delivered at the University of Nebraska MFA Program (part 1/3)

Dear Readers, 

I recently gave what’s known as a “craft talk” at the lovely University of Nebraska MFA program. The topic was secrets, our contemporary obsession with stories that are “true to life,” and whether fiction operates more as an act of exposure—or as an act of disguise.

The talk grew out of my own attempts to write a diary, something I haven’t…