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Arjun Basu's avatar

Because the categories are driven by the industry and not the writers. But the students should know! I'm facing something similar. My publisher passed on my new(er) work, and I've left my agent, because apparently I'm writing in a different genre now. If by genre you mean where someone might find my book in a very large bookshop with a lot of sections, then yes, I guess I am.

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Leigh Stein's avatar

There are always going to be literary writers who delight in blurring genre and category (look at Catherine Lacey's newest novel, out today, a fictional biography). But most writers should be able to answer the question "is it fiction? or nonfiction?" Those are different places in the bookstore... nonfiction books require different legal review/fact-checking than novels...

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Michael Mohr's avatar

IтАЩm not sure thatтАЩs exactly true though: interestingly, memoir is sometimes placed in the fiction section. Can Memoir ever truly be тАШnonfictionтАЩ? How reliable is memory?

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Kate McKean's avatar

Yeah, I have not seen this. Memoirs are not transcripts of life but neither are they novels.

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Michael Mohr's avatar

Actually: I stand corrected. I thought that was true but I searched and Nope!

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Leigh Stein's avatar

What memoir have you found shelved in the fiction section?

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Michael Mohr's avatar

See above ЁЯСЖ ЁЯШО

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Arjun Basu's avatar

All writers blur genres. It's just less of a problem for some. I mean, you add one robot to what is otherwise a workplace drama of ideas and suddenly you're writing speculative fiction...

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Leigh Stein's avatar

SureтАФmy main point is about category (which I see as a bigger umbrella than "genre")

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Arjun Basu's avatar

It is. But in the end this is a discussion about who gets to talk about certain books and how its identified in a bookstore. We're not really talking about writing, which in discussions about this kind of thing is almost besides the point. Alas. We're all playing the game. Just so everyone knows, my next book (spring 2024) contains no robots or speculation - it's set in 2017.

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Kate McKean's avatar

I agree. But the have to be organized somehow! :)

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Arjun Basu's avatar

Of course. And having worked in publishing, I understand that. Try telling your sales reps they can sell the book "anywhere" and suddenly you're alone in the bar and wondering if you still have a job....

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