Literary Journalism on Trial: Janet Malcolm, Criminal Character and the Legacy of New Journalism

How literary is literary journalism, and is recognising the inventiveness of nonfictional writing the same as categorising it as fiction?Or to put it otherwise: does fiction always imply a failure to account for the facts, and when does inventiveness become fiction?These are the questions that Janet Malcolm insistently poses in her writing from the late 1970s when

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Publication Details

Journal
Critical Quarterly
Published
2026-02-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/criq.70036
Primary Topic
Crime and Detective Fiction Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Literary Journalism on Trial: Janet Malcolm, Criminal Character and the Legacy of New Journalism

Jess Cotton
Critical Quarterly
Crime and Detective Fiction Studies
article

Literary Journalism on Trial: Janet Malcolm, Criminal Character and the Legacy of New Journalism

Jess Cotton
article en

Abstract

How literary is literary journalism, and is recognising the inventiveness of nonfictional writing the same as categorising it as fiction?Or to put it otherwise: does fiction always imply a failure to account for the facts, and when does inventiveness become fiction?These are the questions that Janet Malcolm insistently poses in her writing from the late 1970s when

Critical Quarterly
Leverhulme Trust
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 61%
Crime and Detective Fiction Studies
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Literary Journalism on Trial: Janet Malcolm, Criminal Character and the Legacy of New Journalism — Jess Cotton · Critical Quarterly (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS