Magical Memoir Moments
Five Days in Vancouver: A Mini-Memoir
Vancouver, BC, must be one of the ten most beautiful places on earth. Mountains, water, temperate climate year round, a meeting place for East and West. Such a meeting took place at the Vancouver Peace Summit September 25-29, 2009. For us at the Fetzer Institute, it was a time of celebration for our Fetzer Prize…
Roger Ebert: His Drinking/Recovery Memoir
You know Roger Ebert as a film critic, one of the best in the business. But on August 25, Roger Ebert came out to the world as a recovering alcoholic in his blog in the Chicago Sun-Times called “Roger Ebert’s Journal.” After 30 years of sobriety and an operation that left him physically unable to…
So How ’bout that Toast?: A Mini-Memoir
Our son Anthony and our new daughter-in-law Chelsea were married September 12 at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in Manhattan. It’s time to share more of the story that has been unfolding here since they announced their engagement. I described the synchronicity in their meeting–their origin story involving Forrest Church and Match.com here. And…
Memoir Poems: A New Family Tradition
The wedding countdown is on! Anthony and Chelsea not only have their own website, like many couples these days, but both of them are bloggers. Anthony uses his blog mostly as a “digital home” for networking in social media, although he announced his engagement there, including the playlist of music and the menu.He also loves…
Julie and Julia Aren't Enough: They Both Needed Judith!
Did you see the summer’s best memoir movie, Julie & Julia? If not, hurry to a theater near you and catch it before it leaves. If you missed the trailer, you can find it here: I read and relished My Life in France a few months ago and then gave the book to one of…
The Harvest Time of Life: A Mini-Memoir
Last Sunday, Stuart and I celebrated the last day of August with one of our many bike rides in the hill/woods/lake country here in southwestern Michigan. We have enjoyed watching the grape vines become green, then produce fruit, and soon we will get to observe the harvest. Next Tuesday another sign of the season arrives–all…
Nostalgia: How Important to the Memoir Writer? Reader?
One of my colleagues, Deb Higgins, sent around an email that has evidently gone viral. It depicts lots of items remembered only by Baby Boomers and their elders. I used the skate key picture from that email as an illustration for Lanie Tankard’s guest blog on Touchstones. But I thought you might like to see…
Britt Bravo's Links: Contests, Reading Challenges, Carnivals
Britt Bravo is a little more than half as old as I am and twice as smart. So she’s perfect as a consultant. You can find her online in many places, but here is her website. When we spent an hour together on the phone recently, she sent me a list of links, many of…
Touchstones: Keys to a Great Memoir
Guest blogger Lanie Tankard returns today to talk about memories of her childhood using “luminous particulars”-a phrase borrowed from Jane Kenyon and Ezra Pound via my former colleague at Goshen College Ann Hostetler. Lanie’s word for those wonderfully evocative objects is “touchstones.” If you enjoy this beautiful essay, you may want to read her first…
100Memoirs Celebrates One Year: So Much Change, So Much to Learn!
My first post to this blog took place August 9, 2008. It was a birthday present from my son Anthony, who has his own blog. Since then, there have been 118 other posts and 398 comments. Thank you, dear readers! I especially want to thank several other bloggers, GutsyWriter, Babsland, OKChelsea, for commenting frequently, both…