autofiction

[aw-toh-fik-shuhn]

noun

1. a genre of novel or short story whose narrator or protagonist is understood to be the author, and which explores the author’s real-life story using the techniques and devices of fiction.

Word History and Origins

Origin of autofiction¹

First recorded in 1975–80; auto- ¹ ( def. ) + fiction ( def. )

Example Sentences

The musician has been careful to clarify that some of the songs are written "in character", saying that the lyrics "could be considered autofiction" - a genre that combines autobiography and fiction.

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In this occasionally saccharine yet blithely comical piece of rich-people-problems autofiction, Clooney is the funniest he’s been in years, taking shots at himself and the life he’s chosen with a marksman’s aim.

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Patricia Lockwood, poet and author of the prizewinning memoir “Priestdaddy,” evokes the pandemic’s long tail in her expressionistic autofiction, “Will There Ever Be Another You,” recounting mind-altering effects on her protagonist, “Patricia,” as she and her husband quarantine in Savannah, Ga., during the initial 2020 outbreak and subsequent surges.

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After spending two seasons scraping the bottom of the barrel, Carrie has turned her newfound status as just any average woman into a horrific stab at autofiction with her new novel, set in 1846 New York City, where she writes thinly veiled musings about her life.

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While Wallen isn’t writing autofiction, it’s hard to separate the bitter drunk of his singles from the headlines he generates.

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