Magical Memoir Moments
Rhoda Janzen, First Lady and Hottest Chick of Mennonite Memoir
There’s news from Rhoda Janzen, author of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. Her sequel memoir Does This Church Make Me Look Fat? is available for pre-order. Here’s a short blurb from USA Today to whet your appetite. Now is that a catchy title or what? The subtitle comes back to remind the reader of her…
Sailing Acts: A Memoir and an Inner Transformation
We’ve just returned. In so many ways I am home again. Back from Brooklyn, back from the world’s best job of being a Granny Nanny, back from living out of suitcases for three weeks and a studio apartment for ten months before that. Back from writing ten chapters of memoir on a dining room table….
Jean Raffa on Dream Interpretation and Memoir Writing
Author Jean Raffa has been sharing her knowledge of dreams in a series begun with this post and continuing with last week’s post about the Big dreams of childhood. Here are two more concluding questions from me and Jean’s answers. Q: If we don’t have dream interpretation training like you do, do we need an analyst…
Understanding a Childhood Dream: With Help from Jean Raffa
When I saw the picture that author Jean Raffa sent me to represent the landscape of western North Carolina, her summer home, I smiled. The picture shows a root cellar, a place that must be important to Jean as she looked for landscape to represent who she is. Synchronistically, cellars are also important to me….
Dreams and Memoir: A Way to Discover Inner Truths About the Past
I’ve been carrying on a conversation with author Jean Raffa ever since she posted this essay about the active imagination and her creative process, excerpted below: Here’s how it works for me. I find a quiet, comfortable, private, and distraction-free place to sit, usually in front of my computer so I can record what is…
Dancing With Change — A Memoir About Parting
Today is the first day of the last week of taking care of Owen in Brooklyn. As I get ready to walk to Owen’s house, I am filled with gratitude and a little grief. Yesterday I took a walk in the park — Ft. Greene Park — on what might have been our last sunny…
A Chance Encounter, Elizabeth Bird, Chuck Close, and Memoirs for Young Readers
What hath memoir to do with children’s lit? To find out, I consulted an expert, Elizabeth Bird, youth materials specialist at the New York Public Library. She’s known as a go-to kid-lit expert for writers, editors, and reporters. When Maurice Sendak died last week, she was interviewed on television. She ended the week as a…