Quick, Somebody Call Oprah!

Nicole Jackson worries about ethical lapses early in her writing career:

Keep in mind, this was also the year I won a personal-narrative contest for writing about a best friend who died in my arms Christmas Eve. My language-arts teacher had told us—I swear!—that personal narratives could be made up, even though they’re generally, um, not. Of course, my narrative was completely untrue and entirely inspired by Beaches, much to the chagrin of the contest runner-up, who’d written with brutal honesty about the time she accidentally ate rabbit poop.

Read more at Nicole’s new blog, Project X.