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Writing Lessons: Memoir Advice? Know Your Audience, With Kate Richards
The cover of Kate Richards’ new book, Madness, a Memoir Next in this new series called Writing Lessons, my guest teacher is Kate Richards, whose astonishing memoir, Madness, tackles just what the title...
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Writing Memoir at Commencement: The Graduation Speech
IT’S GRADUATION SEASON, and every time it rolls around I am reminded of when I’ve spoken at commencements, and the great honor that it is to be asked to do so. But among the graduation speeches and...
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Writing Lessons: Ask Yourself, “What’s My Question?” With Monica Wesolowska
Next up in Writing Lessons, my guest teacher is Monica Wesolowska, a writer whose brave new book is getting a great deal of much-deserved attention. Deftly-written and smart, it is a primer in how to...
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Writing Lessons: First Drafts, with Josh Hanagarne
Next up in Writing Lessons is Josh Hanagarne, author of the marvelous book, The World’s Strongest Librarian. If you don’t know the book, you will. It’s getting a lot of well-earned attention. After...
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Writing Lessons: On What to Leave In Your Memoir Writing, with Priscilla Gilman
Next in Writing Lessons, Priscilla Gilman bravely tackles the topic of what to leave in your memoir writing. After reading The Anti-Romantic Child: A Memoir of Unexpected Joy, I became an instant fan...
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Writing Lessons: Memoir’s Truth and Consequences, with Anthony D’Aries
Next up in Writing Lessons, my guest teacher is Anthony D’Aries, whose wonderful new book, The Language of Men, A Memoir, takes on just what the title suggests. His how-to piece takes on what happens...
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Writing Lessons: Picking Small Topics To Write About
Next up in Writing Lessons my guest teacher Ariel Balter, a writer whose recent book, The Maternity Labyrinth, was published by Plain View Press. I had long wanted to feature a book of theirs here. An...
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“Orange is The New Black” Author Talks about Writing Memoir
CHANCES ARE FAIRLY good that you’ve hear of the new Netflix breakout series called Orange is the New Black. And if you haven’t, well, you will. It’s all the rage. Here, finally, is Piper Kerman, author...
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Writing Lessons: When Are You Ready To Write Memoir?
Next in this new series called Writing Lessons, our teacher is Liz Picco, taking on the gnarly topic of when to start writing memoir. When are you ready? My advice is to listen to Liz. She knows. I...
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The Memoir Project Tops P&W Best Books for Writers
A HUGE RED LIPSTICK kiss goes out to Poets & Writers magazine’s online site for placing The Memoir Project, my idiosyncratic, irreverent little book on how to write memoir, at the top of their new...
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Writing Lessons: How to Write A Memoir That You’d Like to Read
ONE OF THE BLURBS on the back of Mardi Jo Link’s new book, Bootstrapper, reads “A heroic-comic saga of single motherhood, pure stubbornness, and the loyalty of three young sons. And more than that, an...
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Writing Lessons: Telling the Truth When Writing Memoir, with Beth Kephart
TELLING THE TRUTH – how to do it, why it’s important, and how to avoid the temptation to stray from it – is perhaps the gnarliest of topics for memoir writers. And so I leave it to Beth Kephart,...
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Writing Lessons: What to Share When Writing Memoir, with Emma Brockes
I PURCHASED THE fine new memoir, She Left Me the Gun, immediately after reading The New York Times’ review of the book that read, in part, “It’s one of those memoirs that remind you why you liked...
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Writing Lessons: How to Reclaim the Fun In Memoir Writing, With J. Maarten...
AH, THE ADVENTURE MEMOIR. Of its writers, few have as distinctive a brand as J. Maarten Troost, whose debut book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals, established his memoir writing as including an eye for...
View ArticleThe 3 Most Important Rules of Writing Memoir, with The Creative Penn
JOANNA PENN HELPS writers get to their work. Me, too. And so we got together via Skype the other day – she in London, me in upstate, New York – and talked about how to write memoir. Want to watch and...
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Writing Lessons: How to Write A Personal Story And Make it Public, with Diane...
HOW TO MAKE the personal public? Good question, isn’t it? How to write a personal story is enough of a question, of course, but when you want to publish that story, offering it up for others to read...
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Writing Lessons: How To Write From Memory, With Nancy Henderson-James
OUR NEXT WRITER will take on the slippery topic of bridging the gap from the here to the then – that distance of writing from memory. Nancy Henderson-James is another author from Plain View Press, a...
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Joanna Penn and I Talk Writing Memoir. The Result? A Podcast For You
The fine Joanna Penn of The Creative Penn JOANNA PENN IS A TIRELESS ADVOCATE for writers. I like to think that I am, as well. Together we recently settled in for a lovely, long transatlantic talk,...
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Writing Lessons: Recalling Details When Writing Memoir, with Lila Q. Weaver
Having always wanted to feature a graphic memoir here on Writing Lessons, I knew I had the right writer when I read a review of Lila Quintero Weaver’s astonishing book, Darkroom, A Memoir in Black...
View ArticleNot In a Memoir Class? Here Are 5 Key Writing Tips You’d Learn Tonight in Mine
MY MEMOIR CLASS begins again tonight after a summer break. I love this day. I’ll meet new people, reconnect with friends, and generally get the crap scared out of me via the adventure that is teaching...
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