Why Ta-Nehisi Coates thinks fiction can save America

Acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates thinks a little art could help us all.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Coates talked about the limits of nonfiction and journalism when it comes to fixing our country in this era of "tragedy and violence and darkness and horribleness."

Coates believes that fiction, which focuses on the stories of individuals, convinces readers to be invested in people who live outside their realm of experience in a way that journalism and nonfiction writing are currently failing to do. "Essential stories and constructs of who we are" have the ability to change minds, not lists of facts. Creative nonfiction, he said, "is not up to the task of humanizing. That's not what it's for." Fiction, meanwhile, can provide some much-needed empathizing and even feel truer to life, he said.

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Coates, who won the National Book Award for Between the World and Me, a 176-page letter to his son about growing up black in America, spoke about the power of fiction ahead of the release of his debut novel, The Water Dancer, which comes out next month.

The novel follows a slave named Hiram from Virginia to Mississippi as he uncovers a reality-warping power referred to as Conduction. Coates' work is one of several others this year to re-examine slavery in American history, a movement he calls "one of the most optimistic and powerful things happening right now."