[LM_NET] Running With Scissors: A Memoir

[Julie Long <jml@JJLONG.US>]

The debate coach at my high school is wondering if Running with Scissors: A Memoir 
by Augusten Burroughs is fiction or nonfiction.  While it is a memoir and 
biographical, Library of Congress suggests the Dewey number 813 (American Fiction 
in English).  The rules for the debate contest are very strict, so the student 
cannot afford to err by choosing fiction for her piece.  Can someone clarify?  I 
understand that memoirs are not true biographies because they usually cover only a 
small portion of a person's life rather than the entire life in chronological 
order.  Also, memoirs are usually essays or narratives based on how someone 
remembers his life.  Still, does that make a memoir fiction?

I recommended that the student choose another piece because the stakes were too 
high to make a mistake.  However, now I am very curious about classifying memoirs.  
 I don't have a copy of Running with Scissors in my library, but I do have others.

Julie Long
Library Media Specialist
Mayde Creek High School
Katy ISD, Texas
jml@jjlong.us



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