In 2017, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer gave inaccurate information on the crowd size for President Donald Trump’s inauguration. When Kellyanne Conway, Senior Counselor to President Trump in his first term, defended Spicer’s claim, she called it an “alternative fact.” This phrase picked up in popularity and Conway was criticized for calling blatant falsehoods “alternative facts.”
This is where Emily Greenberg ’13 got the title for her debut short story collection, Alternative Facts. Greenberg explained, “Fiction is also a form of lying in a way. It's interesting to think about these Trump administration figures who are … telling fictions. What does that mean for me as a fiction writer? … they're telling these fictions to manipulate us and to divide us. I want to turn the tables and use fiction on them. But I have a different purpose. I want people to be able to reflect more and connect with the idea of another human being on the page.”
Greenberg wrote for The Cornell Daily Sun in an arts column titled “Greener on the Other Side.” In January 2025, Kallisto Gaia Press published her debut short story collection Alternative Facts. Greenberg reflected on the collection’s purpose: "Reclaiming fiction is a useful and meaningful thing. During the first Trump administration, in reaction to lies being told and fake news, people were saying ‘We must defend facts [and truth]’ … But there were also people that said maybe it’s irresponsible to do satire, given this administration is basically peddling satire … is it responsible right now to write stuff that toys with the idea of truth? I think this book is an attempt to say, yes, actually we do still need … to embrace works that have this complicated understanding of truth and reality, but at the same time condemn the outright lies and the fake news.”
Alternative Facts consists of seven short stories that contemplate reality and perception. In my interview with Emily, we discussed her intentions and why she wrote the collection.
The first short story, “Alternative Facts,” takes Kellyanne Conway’s perspective at Trump’s first inauguration ball. It’s quick and all in one breath, only one sentence but 12 pages long. A major theme throughout the collection is introduced in “Alternative Facts”: what does and does not exist. Conway repeats that if something wasn’t observed, then it didn’t happen. This fits with the story’s ending, whether or not Conway punched someone in the face at the ball, as reported by an eyewitness. It sets the scene for the rest of the collection; Alternative Facts is whimsical with its voice, writing and format yet haunting with questions about reality and whether truth is only found in observation.
Greenberg makes use of pop culture references to participate in fact-based fiction and political criticism. “There's something about historical specificity that has become more ascendant with postmodernism, which is a rejection of abstractions, universalisms and grand narratives. The modernist school of thought is that we do want the work to have universal appeal, which is why you might be encouraged not to have pop culture references … Whereas the postmodernist thinking is that there are no universalisms, there are no grand narratives, everything is subjective and we want to be historically specific in order to make a more political critique,” Greenberg explains.
“Black Box,” the second story, involves American psychologist B.F. Skinner. Skinner believed it isn’t necessary to understand a person’s thoughts to understand their behavior. This story depicts his perspective through his career and relationship with his wife. Greenberg wrote “Black Box” as a refutation of the idea that internal thoughts are unimportant. “That was definitely an interesting challenge … how do I convey [his] voice but also undermine it and what he believes in a way?” Greenberg wondered.
“Lost in the Desert of the Real,” possibly my favorite story in the collection, follows key players in the 2018 Hawai’i false missile alert. While the story is absurd when it jumps between perspectives like Donald Trump golfing or the employee who sent out the alert, it is also bleak when we see Hawaiian citizens fear for their lives. The most significant perspective, I believe, is of the Japanese-American O‘ahu native and army veteran. He remembers Pearl Harbor and thinks back to his time in the army, “living with multiple identities and in multiple realities” (Greenberg, 81). The story tackles the tumultuous history of the U.S. overthrowing the Hawaiian kingdom to annex Hawai’i. Greenberg emphasizes, “People had a real terrifying experience even though what they thought was happening … was false, but that doesn't mean that what they went through was false … All of these stories are meant to complicate our relationship to the real and to the truth and fact.”
That’s exactly what Alternative Facts accomplishes. Each story introduces a new set of characters and timelines that “complicates our relationship to the real.” The intention behind each story, experimental formats and characters are what make Alternative Facts such an enjoyable read.
When asked “Who is your ideal reader?” Greenberg responded, “Anyone who’s … lost in our current political moment. I hope my book would offer them a different way to think about current events … instead of feeling stuck.”
Finally, I asked, “What would you say to any Cornell student who is aspiring to the arts as they're looking toward their future?”
“You have to just keep going. I've gotten so many rejections in my life. This book was rejected a ton of times. … It's really easy to get discouraged … No matter how smart and talented you are as a writer, rejection is just part of the game … to go back to what my professor [Michael Koch] had said to me: A writer is just somebody who writes. All the external validation stuff doesn't matter, if you're a writer, you need to find a way to keep writing and to keep at it over many, many years, regardless of the outcome … just keep going with it.”
Sophia Romanov Imber is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at sromanovimber@cornellsun.com.
