Magical Memoir Moments
Jean Raffa on Dream Interpretation and Memoir Writing
Author Jean Raffa has been sharing her knowledge of dreams in a series begun with this post and continuing with last week’s post about the Big dreams of childhood. Here are two more concluding questions from me and Jean’s answers. Q: If we don’t have dream interpretation training like you do, do we need an analyst…
Understanding a Childhood Dream: With Help from Jean Raffa
When I saw the picture that author Jean Raffa sent me to represent the landscape of western North Carolina, her summer home, I smiled. The picture shows a root cellar, a place that must be important to Jean as she looked for landscape to represent who she is. Synchronistically, cellars are also important to me….
Dreams and Memoir: A Way to Discover Inner Truths About the Past
I’ve been carrying on a conversation with author Jean Raffa ever since she posted this essay about the active imagination and her creative process, excerpted below: Here’s how it works for me. I find a quiet, comfortable, private, and distraction-free place to sit, usually in front of my computer so I can record what is…
A Chance Encounter, Elizabeth Bird, Chuck Close, and Memoirs for Young Readers
What hath memoir to do with children’s lit? To find out, I consulted an expert, Elizabeth Bird, youth materials specialist at the New York Public Library. She’s known as a go-to kid-lit expert for writers, editors, and reporters. When Maurice Sendak died last week, she was interviewed on television. She ended the week as a…
Yeats, Mennonites, and Memoir
At the Mennonite/s Writing VI conference March 30-April 1, 2012, the theme of “the self” recurred often. Poet and scholar Ann Hostetler drew attention to this theme in her talk: “The Self in Mennonite Garb, or, Where Does the Writing Come From?” Hostetler has been thinking about the lyric voice ever since she put together…
Some Assembly Required: A Review of Anne (and Sam) Lamott's Memoir
I wasn’t going to write any more reviews in this blog — except by offering this space to guest reviewers whose writing I know and trust. I have vowed to keep the chapter drafts of my own memoir my first priority for my precious writing time. Reading and reviewing a new book can take one…
Daisy Hickman: Interviewer and Reviewer (of Jonathan Franzen's The Discomfort Zone)
There’s an art to interviews. First of all, it helps to be a great observer and listener and to know something about the person and subject under inspection. Most of all, it helps to care. Daisy Hickman fits that bill perfectly. Last week she placed her questions and my answers on her great blog Sunny…
Toni Morrison Turns Back Memoir Contract
By almost any standard, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison has led an extraordinary life. I’d love to read the story only she could tell about any segment of this story: born 1931 into a working class family in Lorain, Ohio; educated at Howard and Cornell Universities; taught at various universities (the last being Princeton); an editor…
Jane Fonda's Popular TED Talk: An Unintended Case for Memoir
Are you 30 or older? If so, you need to watch this talk. If you don’t have 19 minutes now, bookmark this post for later and just read some of the quotes under the embedded video below. It could change your life. The first act in life occurs roughly from conception to age 30. The…