For those attending the upcoming Associated Writing Programs Conference in Denver, CO, April 7-10, this panel will take place on Friday at 3:00 p.m.
F211. Mock-Docs, Fakes, and Hoaxes. (David Lazar, Jeff Porter, Catherine Taylor, Mary Cappello, Patrick Madden) Although a spate of false memoirs has recently rocked the mainstream press, we shouldn't be too startled given the long history of aesthetic forgeries. Fakes and hoaxes, especially involving works of art, have a curiously abiding appeal which often supersedes any debates about their authenticity or truth value. This panel will explore our culture's romance with fakery across media, from Orson Welles's notorious radio hoax and Christopher Guest's sham documentaries to Nabokov's literary spoofs.