Dynamic Landscapes 2014

Annie Dillard says, "The mind is a blue guitar on which we improvise the song of the world.'' I believe she means that through fiction authors and their readers access the minds of characters who teach us about their worlds and, by association, our own. To give that teaching authority, authors must achieve a verisimilitude through careful research and an honest portrayal of characters in a story. Be prepared to test your own powers of observation and memory and to fill in the gaps with online investigation.

https://sites.google.com/a/vita-learn.org/dynamiclandscapes2014/Fiction%20as%20Research%20Handout.pdf