Magical Memoir Moments

Willa Cather tombsone

Honoring Willa Cather: A Happiness Project

  Last fall I traveled a long way to Jaffrey, New Hampshire. I wanted to place flowers at the grave of Willa Cather, my favorite author.

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How to Leave a Legacy. Hint: It Goes Beyond Your Book

  The most piercing thought any of us have is that some day we won’t be here. Some day, instead of sitting here looking out at the Shenandoah Mountain, I will be gone from this earth. Someone else will be looking through this window. In the words of poet Jane Kenyon, “all morning I did/the…

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Review of Jean Janzen's Mennonite Memoir: Entering the Wild

The word “wild” has loomed large over the field of memoir this year. You’ve probably heard of Cheryl Strayed’s wonderful book about her amazing journey on the Pacific Crest Trail. I reposted a wonderful review of the book by Strayed’s mentor Paulette Bates Alden here. Now I have another wild book to recommend. Here’s my…

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Seeing a Ghost or Entertaining an Angel: Which was It?

Have you ever seen a ghost? An angel? The physical image of a departed loved one? No? Nor have I. But my mother did. Here’s how it happened. The year was 1951. Our family of four, Mother, Daddy, baby Henry, and me, lived on a farm near Manheim, Penna.  It was a Monday morning. Mother…

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The Things She Couldn’t Carry: Touching the Hem of My Grandmother’s Garment

After we die, who is left to tell our story? And what is left of who we were? My maternal grandmother Anna Mary Herr Hess died at the age of 56 when I was not quite three years old; hence, I do not consciously remember her living presence. Almost everything I know about my grandmother has…

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Speaking of Faith: Writing About Being Mennonite

Last week on this blog Annette Gendler offered her prescription for how to write about family, which might be one of the most difficult challenges a memoir writer faces. Annette invited me to write about religion, since both of us are shaped by faith. This morning I appear here as her guest blogger. The best…

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How to Write About Family: Honoring Self and Other in Memoir

Today’s post comes to you from Annette Gendler, a nonfiction writer who teaches memoir and blogs about memoir. Annette has published many personal essays and is seeking a publisher for her book-length memoir about forbidden love between a German and a Jew, a love which succeeded despite great odds. She offers her advice on how…

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How Laughter Can Heal–A Mennonite Actor's Journey after a Tragic Suicide

I love when comedy arises out of tragedy. So I loved Ted Swartz’s memoir. Here’s how he starts the book: My review of  Laughter Is Sacred Space: The Not-so-Typical Journey of a Mennonite Actor appeared in the October 15 issue of Mennonite World Review. Read it by going directly to the link or by continuing below….

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Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and the Immortality of Powerful Words

When Nikki Giovanni and Joanne Gabbin call them to assemble, the stars of the African-American literary community and their fans gather. And when these two poets choreograph the stars, they sparkle, dance, and sing like never before. It was my sheer good fortune to participate in an event organized by Giovanni and Gabbin that I will not soon…

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Rhoda Janzen's New Memoir: A Christian Century Review

If you have been following the bestselling author Rhoda Janzen since the publication of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress, and many people who read this blog, especially this post, have been doing so, you will want to buy her second memoir. I’m deeply grateful to Janzen for helping both Mennonites and others, both secular…

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