Writing regional fiction: a cultural geographer’s first-hand account

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this first-hand account, a geographer describes his experience in writing and publishing his first work of fiction. He outlines the process involved in identifying and re-examining narratives from real people, and discusses how he configured these into an award-winning novel that amounts to an alternate viewpoint of what transpired in Chile's Atacama Desert in the politically tumultuous early 1970s. In addition to credibly portraying historical events and actively engaging varied voices, he notes that capturing the character of place – its landscape, economy, and inhabitants – is essential in writing regional fiction. This transformational experience led him to the conclusion that fiction can reveal deeper truths than non-fiction.