Gustavus Adolphus College

The Thing Needed

A Collection of Creative Nonfiction
English 399 Senior Seminar
Fall 2006

"I'm a storyteller. I'll work to make you believe me. Throw in some real stuff, change a few details, add the certainty of outrage. I know the use of fiction in a world of hard truth, the way fiction can be a harder piece of truth. The story of what happened, or what did not happen but should have—that story can become a curtain drawn shut, a piece of insulation, a disguise, a razor, a tool that changes every time it is used and sometimes becomes something other than we intended.

The story becomes the thing needed." –Dorothy Allison, Two or Three Things I Know for Sure

Featured Authors

• Kim Anderson, "Bleeding for My Family"
• Jessica Barron, "Pants on Fire: A Memoir"
• Ellen Bergman, "The Ellen Show"
• Teresa Bolstad, "Desperate for Daylight" (Read an excerpt)
• Erin Buller, "Facing Me"
• Seth Calvert, "How to Describe a Part of Your Very Self"
• Will Colmar, "The Match of a Lifetime"
• Kate Ellingsen, "The Other Side of the Rainbow"
• Laura Jensen, "Choices"
• Heidi Johnson, "Water: The Essence of Life"
• Derek Martin, "The Tinian Man"
• Sally Petersen, "On Life and Love"
• Nicole Radotich, "Subway Family"
• Erin Sandberg, "Souvenir: A Collection of Memories"
• Rachel Tuil, "Love You Forever: A Memoir"
• Anna Yesberger, "Out East"