Everybody lies — at least once in their life. If someone says they’ve never lied, they probably just did. One might lie for an honorable reason or for a nefarious reason. One might conceal the truth because it benefits others or because it benefits oneself. One might be telling straight truths or ‘Alternative Facts.’  

Emily Greenberg, White Station High School (WSHS) alumnus, is the author of the 2025 award-winning short story collection ‘Alternative Facts.’ Greenberg has published multiple short fictions, a novella, a literary essay, two humor stories, an anthology and two arts writings throughout her career, some of which have received awards and recognitions. She is also a filmmaker, artist and teacher; she makes experimental films, visual and media art, and teaches multiple topics like visual and media art, design, and film at colleges and universities.

“I remember when I was in second grade and we had this … creative writing assignment,” Greenberg said. “We were supposed to tell a story about some historical thing and I got really, really into it and I was like ‘Oh, wow, this is really fun.’ So I remember at that point in second grade being like ‘Oh, I wanna grow up to be a writer,’ and yeah, it never really went away.”

Greenberg is a relatively recent graduate of WSHS, graduating with the class of 2009. She ran cross country, participated in Wordsmith and Model United Nations (MUN) and took multiple Advanced Placement (AP) classes. Greenberg took classes from multiple current WSHS teachers, like Charles Berlin for various AP art classes, Scott Harrison for 10th grade English, and Mike Stephenson for AP European History and US History. Following high school, Greenberg attended Cornell University, where she was a member of the Cornell Democrats, and The Ohio State University, where she received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. She now lives in San Diego, California, after moving multiple times for her education.

“It was good that White Station had a lot of honors and AP classes,” Greenberg said. “Its reputation — it’s like one of the best schools in the city, I think even in the state — so I definitely tried to take advantage of that while I was there. I also really learned a lot from my classmates, too. So many of the students I was in class with were really, really smart people and so that was definitely part of my educational experience, as well — just having such intelligent, talented peers who have all gone on to do really cool things.”

‘Alternative Facts,’ Greenberg’s first book, is a collection of seven short stories that focus on multiple controversial — mostly political — figures in modern America. Each story is based on real events and real people, which Greenberg elaborates on with her own artistic vision. She chose which stories to include in the book in graduate school while putting her book manuscript for her thesis together. 

“I didn’t pick them all at once,” Greenberg said. “The first story that I wrote in there was about George [W.] Bush … and I remember reading this article about him that he was painting, and I thought that was super interesting and people were sort of speculating like, ‘Oh, is he doing this to sort of show remorse for what he did?’ and I didn’t really buy that explanation … I don’t know what’s going on with the real person psychologically — that’s impossible — but I worked with this character who shares many of his attributes in order to kind of explore a similar psychology, so that was the idea for that one. They all kind of came to me like that, like I just read something and [became] interested in it.” 

Having detailed knowledge of the turbulent and ever-changing political climate in America, let alone the world, requires hours of research. Greenberg has read numerous books and articles and has watched multiple films and documentaries to learn about even the smallest details of the events and people she discusses. Not only does she understand them, but through her writing, she also helps the reader understand them.

“I had to do a lot of research about the people I was writing about,” Greenberg said. “So when I was writing about [Kellyanne Conway], for example, I watched a lot of YouTube videos of her [and] I read a book … about her conversational style … [I did] lots of research, which is partly why I think I’m a slow writer … ‘cause I have to go and read all these books first in order to just go and write the thing. Like that George Bush story is just … nine pages, but I probably read at least 10 books to write those nine pages, so it’s a very slow process.”

The book covers many current political and pop culture figures in America, including former President Bush, Conway and Paris Hilton. An author who writes 184 pages about such figures would presumably have a strong interest in politics. 

“I think I started getting more into politics when I went to White Station,” Greenberg said. “I was just exposed to, you know, people from different backgrounds, different cultures, a lot of different ideas, and so I think it just kind of opened me up more to what else is going on in the world … White Station being a public school — it is affected by politics — so I think just being a little more aware of how that’s impacting your day-to-day [is important].”

As a born-Memphian, Greenberg learned about Memphis’ history while growing up. The city has an important history, such as the expulsion of multiple native tribes, slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow laws and the death of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel. Memphis is also considered a “blue” or Democratic city in the “red” or Republican state of Tennessee, making it stand out politically. Greenberg sees Memphis and its history and politics as a big influence on her writing.

“It’s really important to remember how we got here and [that] history is written by the victors,” Greenberg said. “The laws of a society are written by those who are in power, and so they’re not necessarily just. I think in Memphis there’s almost a little bit of skepticism towards mainstream kind of narratives, and I think that skepticism and contrarian-ness has also kind of influenced me as a writer.”

‘Alternative Facts’ is not a meaningless title — it comes from a statement that Conway, former Senior Counselor to the President, made during President Donald Trump’s first term in office about former Press Secretary Sean Spicer. At Trump’s first inauguration, Spicer stated that “this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” This assessment, however, was false. When confronted about Spicer’s statement in a 2017 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Conway said that Spicer didn’t lie; he simply gave “alternative facts.” 

“[The] phrase kind of took off, and people were like, ‘This is just a euphemism for a lie and she’s kind of dressing it up and making it sound good, but it’s just a lie,’” Greenberg said. “My book was originally called ‘Alternative Facts and Other Fictions,’ and ‘Other Fictions’ was the subtitle, just kind of getting at this idea of an alternative fact is a lie — it’s a fiction. You know, fiction writers also lie; they make up stories; they’re fictional. [The title is] kind of gesturing at this idea that there are these two kinds of fictions.” 

With the rapid increase of technology in recent years, information can be transferred more easily and more quickly than ever before. People no longer receive their news from just one objective, factual source, leading to a lot of information in the present day being unchecked and often fictitious. With the press of a button, thousands of people can receive falsified information, and many believe it to be true. The term ‘post-truth’ is often used to describe this decline in the importance of the truth in political situations. Post-truth is connected to each of Greenberg’s stories in ‘Alternative Facts’ in some way.

“People were kind of using [the term post-truth] to point to this breakdown in truth, breakdown in facts that was happening under the [first] Trump administration,” Greenberg said. “There were a lot of just blatant lies and then — I mean the administration also started erasing climate data from their [websites] … People no longer trust sort of mainstream news anymore. A lot of people get their news from social media or from other internet places and these are not always fact-checked, verified.”

Other than the possible anger coming from grammar dogmatists and fanatics towards the twelve-page sentence that makes up the first story in the book, the titular ‘Alternative Facts,’ the idea of spinning real events and people into satirical short stories might cause some controversy. To combat any claims of falsifying or fabricating facts, Greenberg included a six-page author’s note expressing that each of the stories is fiction that simply “draws upon” real details and events, with some using lines of dialogue from movies and television. ‘Alternative Facts’ is not meant to inform or teach people about the topics it discusses; it is simply Greenberg’s artistic interpretation of them.

“What I’m trying to do is give people this emotional experience and this artistic experience,” Greenberg said. “For me, that’s really different from the kinds of fictions that some of these political figures are crafting, which is to divide us, to manipulate us, to deceive us — that kind of thing. I wanted to kind of put those two understandings of fiction in conversation because a lot of what I’ve done in the book is I’ve written about some of these figures who are liars or are associated with post-truth in some way, and I’ve drawn on real facts about their life, but I’ve told made-up stories. I’m kind of, in a way, doing to them what they’ve done to us, but I’m doing it — hopefully — in a way that isn’t to manipulate or deceive or anything like that. It’s to bring understanding and [create] something more positive.”

Greenberg has won numerous awards for her writing, receiving two Pushcart Prize Special Mentions, placing as a runner-up for the Acacia Fiction Prize and BOA Editions Short Fiction Prize, as a finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize and Iron Horse First Book Prize and as the winner of a Witness Literary Award in Fiction. The Pushcart Prize, for example, is one of the top writing honors in America; the series includes a collection of short stories, poetry and essays published by “small presses and authors.” A new collection is published each year, totaling 49 releases since its start in 1976.

“It’s just a really big honor for me to be included [in the Pushcart Special Mention] list,” Greenberg said. “Some of the other people on that list were really big names … It was for ‘Alternative Facts,’ so the first story, and then the story ‘Houston, We’ve Had a Problem’ also got the same recognition.”

As the importance of the truth begins to fall out of prominence in the public eye, fiction has become a strong tool that some authors use to deliver messages to their audience. Living in the post-truth era can be frightening and stressful to many Americans; even those who are unaware of this dismantling of the truth are affected. Greenberg hopes to reach out to those who are facing the reality of this new political climate.

“I think people who are interested in politics and contemporary, current events … that’s who I would hope the book would appeal to,” Greenberg said. “Maybe just anyone who’s sort of struggling with the times that we’re in and just feeling like everything is so fragmented and fractured and there’s so much conflict, there’s so much polarization. Anyone sort of struggling with that I hope would find something in my book that could maybe speak to them.”

Most writers face plenty of rejection in their careers — Greenberg included. However, through persistence, many end up publishing their work. Greenberg had this advice to share with budding writers:

“First of all, just read,” Greenberg said. “Read as much as you can. Read things that challenge you. Read things that are kind of outside of your comfort zone or things that you think you might disagree with. Just read everything — read as much as you can. And then practice; writing is something where, if you work on it every day, you will get better … Third piece of advice is just don’t give up. As a writer, you’re facing just constant rejection … You just kind of have to develop a thick skin, and not everyone’s gonna like your work and just because you get rejections, it doesn’t mean somebody else isn’t gonna love it … If you work at it, you’ll get better.”

Fiction is an important medium for expression to many authors and readers alike. However, when fact and fiction collide in such a manner that the truth is lost, fiction can truly become dangerous. In the post-truth era, facts have been put in peril at the expense of lies and half-truths. Literature and other forms of written media, including those taught in school, are essential to keeping facts alive. 

“I’m really grateful for the English teachers that I had at White Station and the books I got to read at White Station,” Greenberg said. “That was all really important to me and my development, so, you know, shoutout to Mr. Harrison since he’s still there. All those English teachers, sometimes they don’t see the impact that they had on their students immediately, but some of those books really stayed with me and it’s been many years and I’m still thinking about some of the things they taught me and some of the books we talked about.”