Magical Memoir Moments

A Workshop on Spiritual Autobiography

Tomorrow I will lead a workshop on spiritual autobiography at my church. The time will be limited to four hours, so we won’t be able to do a lot of writing. Here is the plan: 1. Begin with meditation. 2. Using examples from this book, Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs, we will…

Read More...

Dreams from My Father

Today Barack Obama will announce his choice of a running mate for the race to the White House. I did not sign up for his text message. Instead, I am reading one of his memoirs, Dreams from My Father. I can already tell you that the book is beautifully structured and written. Unlike John McCain,…

Read More...

Discovering Shelfari

My son Anthony keeps showing me wonderful places to go online, especially places that help me learn more about social media and might brighten the face of this blog.  The latest is Shelfari, a place to rate books, talk about books, and meet new book lovers.  I have started a group there called–you guessed it–100…

Read More...

Scott Russell Sanders and Spiritual Memoir

The September issue of The Writer’s Chronicle carries an interview with Scott Russell Sanders by Tom Montgomery Fate which excited me because it asks one of my own questions: is it possible to tell an artful story out of an ordinary life? Scott Russell Sanders is one of the few who do this difficult task…

Read More...

Meditation and Memoir

My daughter Kate and I had a wonderful conversation on Monday about the difference between fantasies, feelings, and actions.  I resolved to get back into the practice of meditation as a result of that conversation.  I am fortunate to work in a place that provides opportunity for meditation at work, so I have begun using…

Read More...

Stanley Fish On Three Popular Narratives and Their Limits

Stanley Fish in yesterday’s New York Times writes about a recent essay by Charles Van Doren in the July 28 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…

Read More...

Doris Lessing

I just finished reading a New York Times review of Doris Lessing’s new novel/memoir (strange combo). The review focused on the author’s struggle for emotional control of memory. Lessing apparently hated her mother and saw both parents as tragic figures. In this book she tries, without total success, apparently, to understand and forgive both parents….

Read More...

Starting Out

This blog structure is not yet published, finished, but my dear son has set up all the first steps for me. I picked the name 100memoirs because I took Heather Seller’s advice to heart in her book Chapter After Chapter. Sellers advises new writers to read 100 excellent examples of their genre before attempting to…

Read More...