Magical Memoir Moments
Announcing the Winner(s) of the Six-Word Memoir Contest
The six-word memoir contest ended at 5 p.m. today. There were 28 entries, three of which were posted on Facebook and added into the comments section of the original post by me. Click here if you want to see all 28. I have selected the entry of Chin Pheng Oh “Watching her grow, I see…
Six-Word Memoir Contest
Have you tried to tell your life story in just six words? Smith magazine discovered a gold mine with this concept a few years ago and now has published several popular books listing these short narratives. The whole concept derives from a single story. Supposedly Ernest Hemingway was challenged to tell a story in six words and…
Want to Create Your Own Memoir Course? Here's a Syllabus to Get You Started
Melanie Springer Mock wrote a very insightful comment on my review of Mennonite in a Little Black Dress. I learned that she teaches memoir writing at George Fox University, which led me to request a copy of her syllabus. She was kind enough to share it. So I include it in its entirety below. A…
Top Ten Memoir List from Mary Karr
As you know, the goal of this blog is self-education in public. I am trying to learn about memoir by reading and reviewing great examples of the genre, books about the genre, and offering some mini-memoir on the way. When readers search for good memoir reading lists, I want them to find this blog. What…
Ben Yagoda's Memoir: A History on the Kindle–A Double Review
Ben Yagoda’s history of the memoir genre should make any other survey redundant. He’s performed a great service, not only to readers and writers but also to the new field of nonfiction/memoir studies. As promised previously, I will describe not only what I learned from reading the book but also from reading it on the Kindle. First,…
Ben Yagoda on NPR: Great Overview of Memoir History
Two days ago I posted an NPR story summary with my own slant on it. It got picked up on www.expectingrain.com and reached hundreds of viewers, instantly becoming my most viewed post. That was exciting. Thanks, Expectingrain.com! Come to think of it, NPR stories on the arts almost always fascinate me, and I can tell…
Why I am Loving My Kindle: And a Request for Readers to Report on Their Own E-book Experiences
A few weeks ago I posted a list of 18 books I had blogged about in the last six months. At the end of the list I included two books I have not yet read, pictured here. Today I got out my six-month-old Kindle and spent 20 seconds ordering the two books–Mary Karr’s Lit and Ben Yagoda’s Memoir:…
Rosanne Cash's "The List"–A Confirmation of the Value of the "Top 100"
Terry Gross, host of NPR’s “Fresh Air,” recently interviewed Rosanne Cash, daughter of Johnny Cash, and singer/songwriter in her own right. Here is the link to a great interview. On the radio program Cash samples 4 or 5 songs from her latest album, “The List.” Below is the story she tells of how “The List” was created as…
The Blind Side and Invictus: Two Movies Worth Watching
I have always been a sucker for a good sports story–even though as a Mennonite farm girl I was not allowed to play competitive sports myself. One Saturday afternoon in the mid 1960’s, while I was performing one of my weekly chores–vacuuming my parents’ bedroom–I tuned the radio dial to the local station hoping to…