Episode 12 | Kim Pittaway

Parallel Careers

“It's essential when we're writing non-fiction for it to be non-fiction. My experience has always been that f**king with the facts f**ks with the emotion. And so sometimes it's because you think that fudging the facts will get you to the truth faster, or will get you to the emotion faster. But often what it gets you to is a surface emotion. False facts get you to false emotion. So sticking with the facts, trying to work your way on the page with the messiness of human experience brings more nuance to that emotional truth that you're trying to get at.”
In this episode, Kim Pittaway shares strategies for writing non-fiction with emotional depth and why it’s essential for writers to learn how the publishing business works.
She discusses:
0:00 | How mentoring should equip students with their own compasses
0:40 | Her work as Executive Director of the creative nonfiction program at University of King's College and the importance of learning the business side of writing alongside the craft
3:19 | Working with Toufah Jallow on her memoir Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement
9:20 | Developing the “idea plot” alongside the narrative drive of a creative nonfiction piece
12:15 | The challenge of interviewing people about traumatic events and the best practices she’s developed over her career
15:24 | Working through a shift in perspective when encountering an emotional gap in a piece
18:30 | Her essay, “After” and challenging conventional reporting on sexual violence
22:50 | Getting to nuanced, emotional truths when writing non-fiction
Kim Pittaway is a cohort director in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at the University of King's College in Halifax, NS. She is an award-winning journalist with publication and broadcast credits that include Hazlitt, Chatelaine, Reader’s Digest, More Magazine, Best Health, Cottage Life, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, CBC Radio’s The Current, Tapestry, and others. She is a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Canadian National Magazine Awards Foundation (and an 8-time NMAF finalist), a co-winner of a Canadian Science Writers’ Association Award with her sister the journalist Tina Pittaway, and a finalist for the American Society of Journalists and Authors service writing award. She spent a decade working with a wide range of magazine and NGO clients developing online editorial strategies and content. She is the author, with Toufah Jallow, of Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement. She is also at work on a memoir with the working title Grudge: What We Learn from What We Can't Forgive. Check out her website.
You can find Kim’s work here:
Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement
After
The music you heard on this episode was composed by Amadeo Ventura. You can hear more of his music at amadeoventura.weebly.com.
Visit TNQ.ca to access more of Kim Pittaway’s writing and teaching tips, including web extras about giving feedback and her forthcoming memoir on forgiveness.
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Reading recommendations:
The Power of Story: On Truth, the Trickster, and New Fiction for a New Era, by Harold R. Johnson
Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos
Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann ni Ghriofa
Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz
They Said This Would be Fun by Eternity Martis
How to Read Now: Essays by Elaine Castillo
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan