Autofiction: Blurring the lines between myth and reality - Author Daniel Cecil

Where does the memoir end and the myth begin?

In contemporary literature, autofiction has emerged as a radical act of self-reconstruction. Whether we are reading a confession or writing our own lives down on paper, we are constantly navigating the thin line between lived experience and invented narrative. Is a fabricated detail any less true if it manages to capture the precise emotional reality of what happened? What do we make of the scandals that break out when a beloved work of non-fiction is revealed as somehow false? 

In this talk, we will dismantle the rigid boundaries between objective truth and creative fabrication. We’ll explore how writers take the raw, chaotic materials of their own existence - grief, love, trauma, and the quiet intensity of mundane intimacy - and shape them into personal mythologies.

Together, we’ll examine our cultural obsession with authenticity: why we crave "the real" while simultaneously surrendering to the artifice of fiction. 

Let’s pour a drink and consider:

• Is memory itself just our first rough draft of fiction?

• Where is the boundary between telling your story and reinventing yourself?

• If an invented detail reveals a deeper emotional truth, is it really a lie?

About the speaker

Daniel is a professional writer and educator with a wealth of experience spanning literary fiction and non-fiction.

His work has been featured in premier publications including The LA Review of Books, The Rumpus, The Stranger, and The Heavy Feather Review. His work has been long-listed for the Dzanc Fiction Prize, earned a Pushcart Prize nomination, and the support of several prestigious residencies. He is the former managing editor of Versal Journal, an arts and literary magazine previously out of Amsterdam. 

Daniel holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Washington, where he spent five years teaching the craft to hundreds of students. Now based in the Netherlands, he is the founder of Honing House, a creative learning space for the Amsterdam literary community, and teaches travel writing at Emerson College. Driven by the belief that fiction is an act of empathy, he focuses on helping writers move past "rules" to find their most authentic and revolutionary voice.

Doors open at 19:30 – Arrive early, grab a seat, and settle in.

Talk starts at 20:00 and runs until around 21:30.

Price includes light drinks.

Stick around afterward - good conversations don’t have closing times.