Magical Memoir Moments
Scott Russell Sanders and Spiritual Memoir
The September, 2008, issue of The Writer’s Chronicle carried an interview with Scott Russell Sanders by Tom Montgomery Fate which makes a rewarding read. It’s full of nuggets worth pondering. As I begin to tackle the long-form memoir, Sanders is one of my teachers through his work. Here are some of the questions he answers: Is it…
Lee Snyder's Memoir: Spiritual Reflections with Oregon, and Peace, at Center
Do you remember the scene in the movie As Good as It Gets when Jack Nicholson tells Helen Hunt, “You make me want to be a better person?” This book made me feel like that. Lee Snyder, whose life of academic and church leadership, culminating in the presidency of Bluffton University, 1996-2006, far exceeded what she ever…
Let Your Life Speak: A Memoir Writer’s Memoir
Parker Palmer turned 70 years old today. I celebrated his birthday by re-reading his book Let Your Life Speak. I took the memoir lens in hand and went searching for how Parker uses his life story in this book. The code on the back jacket cover says “spirituality/work life” not “memoir.” But what if we…
A Memoir that Awakens the Spiritual Version of the American Dream
This morning, as is our habit, my husband and I attended Skyridge Church of the Brethren. Our pastor Debbie preached about healing, using as a lectionary text Psalm 30, the one that promises, in the majestic language of the King James Bible, that “weeping endureth for the night but joy cometh in the morning.” This…
My Stroke of Insight: A Spiritual Memoir
I will cut to the chase on the last night of the year 2008. I loved this book. I read it nearly in one sitting, fascinated by the straightforward telling of an incredible story. Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist working at the Brain Bank at Harvard University, woke up one morning with a headache…
Left To Tell: Spiritual Memoir
Next Wednesday night the neighborhood book club (described in a previous post) will be discussing Left To Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, a dramatic tale of courage, deliverance, and forgiveness from the killing fields of Rwanda in 1994. This book was “written with” Steve Erwin. By now you know that I am not…
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…