If This Were Fiction

Jill Christman is the author of two memoirs, Darkroom: A Family Exposure and Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood. She is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Ball State University, a senior editor of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, and executive producer for the podcast Indelible: Campus Sexual Violence.

“Christman’s writing is moving and poetic, and she has a knack for imbuing profundity into everyday activities, whether slicing an avocado or climbing a hill. Fans of the personal essay shouldn’t miss these intimate encounters.”-Publishers Weekly, starred review “Eloquent and probing, Christman’s essays examine the profound ways relationships can-for better or worse-transform an individual life and provide glimpses into the complexities of the human heart. A warmly wise, intimate memoir.”-Kirkus Reviews "If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays gives you what you didn't know you needed: sloths and loss and Swedish Fish candy, alligators and avocados and bird girls, pain and loss and hard traveling back to confront that pain, googly eyes and wayward skirts and lipsticks uncapped in purses, electric eye contact with a fetching poet across a dive bar, all woven with joy."-Sonya Huber, Brevity “Reading these essays is like hanging out with a true friend, someone who isn’t afraid to be real. Jill Christman writes about love, loss, trauma, fear, parenthood, and the strange wonder of our past and former selves with deep understanding, humor, and so much beauty.”-Beth (Bich Minh) Nguyen, author of Stealing Buddha’s Dinner “If This Were Fiction is the collection I wish I had the talent and skill to write. Christman’s words shine with unusual beauty and hard-earned brilliance.”-Ashley C. Ford, author of Somebody’s Daughter “What is more complex than love, marriage, motherhood, and family? Probably nothing, but Jill Christman takes the deep dive with intelligent, intense, intimate essays that will catch you off guard and leave you wanting more. If This Were Fiction is a piercing book by a brilliant, gutsy writer.”-Dinty W. Moore, author of To Hell with It “Engaging and distinctive. Christman brings intelligence, wit, and insightful honesty to her personal experiences with motherhood, womanhood, and girlhood, to abuse and its legacies, to the search for joy, creative expression, and love. Moving, beautifully written, and often quite funny.”-Megan Harlan, author of Mobile Home: A Memoir in Essays

• Part I. since feeling is firstThe SlothGoing Back to Plum IslandThe Surprise BabyThe River CaveBird GirlsLife’s Not a ParagraphPart II. we are for each otherFamily PortraitThe Eleven-Minute Crib NapThe Googly EyeA Stone PearLeading the Children Out of TownSlaughterhouse IslandPart III. And death i think is no parenthesisThe AvocadoThe Baby and the AlligatorAiskhyneThe Lucky OnesNaked Underneath Our ClothesSpinningAcknowledgmentsSource Acknowledgments