What’s in a name? Academic Sue Joseph interviews eleven Australian non-fiction writers, a varied group which includes Paul McGeough, Doris Pilkington Garimara, and Kate Holden. Joseph is on a quest to uncover whether Australian ‘creative non-fiction’ exists here, as it does in other countries, and to understand what the term signifies to her subjects.

Either way, she has been warned off. Three notable writers of what Joseph would argue constitutes this genre disagree with its existence and declined the invitation: David Marr, Helen Garner, and Chloe Hooper. Indeed, many of her interviewees reject the label. But Joseph strives to be a ‘champion’ of this area.