Where may truth lie? Fiction in memory, memory in fiction
The award-winning author and memoirist Candia McWilliam attests to the edifying power of fiction and biography in the third lecture in the Weinrebe series from the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing.
The award-winning author and memoirist Candia McWilliam attests to the edifying power of fiction and biography to help us see the world through the eyes of others, in the third lecture in the Weinrebe series from the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing. McWilliam overcame writer's block following a period of near-blindness brought on by the rare illness blepharospasm to write the Hawthornden Prize-winning memoir What to Look For in Winter. Wolfson College President and OCLW Director Hermione Lee, in her introduction to the lecture, described her voice as "subtle, original and sharp", and her memoir as remarkable for its candour and lack of sef-pity, "told with eloquence, truthfulness and comic brio".
Date Published:
20 February 2012
Source:
Contributors:
Candia McWilliam
In Collection(s):
Writing lives: biography, autobiography, memoir, life-writing
Keywords:
biography, life-writing, Fiction, writing, wolfson, #greatwriters
Cite:
Where may truth lie? Fiction in memory, memory in fiction at https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/ via https://dev.writersinspire.it.ox.ac.uk/content/where-may-truth-lie-fiction-memory-memory-fiction. Published on 20 February 2012. Accessed on 09 May 2026.
If reusing this resource please attribute as follows: Where may truth lie? Fiction in memory, memory in fiction (https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/), licensed as Creative Commons BY-NC-SA (2.0 UK).