Magical Memoir Moments
Thomas Merton, Sainthood, and Writing About One's Own Life
I find Thomas Merton’s journals both inspiring and intimidating. They inspire me by opening all my senses to the world in front of me, and especially to the natural world. They intimidate me because they make me feel like a shallow, half-hearted Christian. I do not have the focus nor the courage of Thomas Merton….
24 Hour-Only Memoir Bargain: William Styron's Darkness Visible on Kindle
We all get spam and the next thing to spam–email from companies we have done business with in the past. Amazon just sent me an email, something that happens without my response several times a week. But this one caught my attention. Here is the link to an offer I couldn’t refuse: an electronic copy…
Is Memoir the New Novel–And Does it Matter?
One of the joys of writing a memoir blog for more than three years is that people send in relevant articles. Today I got this one about memoir replacing the novel from Simone; last week I got a message from Clif. Thanks, friends! The article below, which appeared in Grub Street Daily, was written by…
Learning from a Baby: A Memoir Writer’s Teacher
I was a baby once. Now I’m a grandma learning to write about childhood while holding my grandson.I remember Wordsworth’s “Ode on Intimations of Mortality” (1803) Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star, Hath had elsewhere its setting And cometh from afar; Not in…
Memoir: Is it Inevitably About Our Parents?
Noble laureate Doris Lessing wrote her last book, Alfred and Emily, reviewed in The New York Times here, at age 88. She’s now 91 years old. Apparently she’s been working out the meaning of her parents’ tragic lives all her life. Her father lost a leg in the trenches during World War I. Her mother…
My First Podcast: On Dancing with Change, Grandmothering, and Leadership!
Brian Paff, a very creative young leader-in-the-making at Laurelville Mennonite Church Center, interviewed me for his podcast series at the Laurelville website. Brian wrote a press release about the series of three speeches I gave at Laurelville April 30-May 1. The theme was dancing with change, and Stuart and I demonstrated the “frame” in ballroom…
White Elephants: A Memoir about Surviving a Mother's Bipolar Illness and Alcoholism
Madeline Sharples, author of Leaving the Hall Light On, reviewed here, has volunteered to review another memoir about mental illness. White Elephants: A Memoir. Chynna T. Laird, Eagle Wings Press, 2011. Reviewed By Madeline Sharples Everyone knew something was terribly wrong with her mother, but nobody did anything about it …that is until Chynna T….
A Memoir Writer's Self-Publishing Success Story: An Interview with Mary-Ann Kirkby
Mary-Ann Kirkby, who grew up in a Canadian Hutterite colony until the age of ten, and whose memoir has been a publishing sensation in Canada, has kindly agreed to answer some questions. I chose her publishing story as the focus of my questions, and Mary-Ann gave generous answers that may surprise you. How did she…
Scott Russell Sanders and Spiritual Memoir
The September, 2008, issue of The Writer’s Chronicle carried an interview with Scott Russell Sanders by Tom Montgomery Fate which makes a rewarding read. It’s full of nuggets worth pondering. As I begin to tackle the long-form memoir, Sanders is one of my teachers through his work. Here are some of the questions he answers: Is it…
Memoir as Window to the Unfathomable Self: Stanley Fish on Charles Van Doren
Stanley Fish several years ago wrote his column in the New York Times about an essay by Charles Van Doren in the July 28, 2008, issue of The New Yorker. If you saw Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford, you know that Charles Van Doren disgraced himself, his family, and perhaps even academic life, by participating in a rigged quiz show…