Memoir: A survey course

Attention!

• Memoir writers
• Would-be memoir writers
• Fans of memoir
• Memoir bashers
• Memoir subjects, voluntary and involuntary

Whichever group you fall into, Slate.com this week offered “Memoir Week: The Stories We Tell about Ourselves,” a three-day word-fest of essays and dialogues, including a history of memoir-bashing by Ben Yagoda, and several others which deal with telling family and friends about the spotlight put on them by such luminaries as Mary Karr and Frank McCourt, and other diverse and provocative takes by memoir writers and critics.

As someone with a memoir in progress (here are two published excerpts: one and two), as well as  an idea for another, I’m looking forward to diving in. Here’s the list, all of them hot-linked.

"A Brief History of Memoir-Bashing: It's almost as old as the memoir itself," by Ben Yagoda. Posted March 30, 2007.

"For Whom the Memoir Tolls: How to write about the dead," by Allen Shawn. Posted March 29, 2007.

"Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone," by Elizabeth Rubin and Mike Vazquez. Posted March 29, 2007.

"Collateral Damage: How I told a former lover I had written about him," by Edmund White. Posted March 29, 2007.

"Just Screw It: Writing about my family's feud over the Sweet'n Low fortune," by Rich Cohen. Posted March 29, 2007.

"Momma's Boy: How I wrote a memoir about the mother I once hated," by John Dickerson. Posted March 28, 2007.

"Inside Autism: What two memoirs can tell us about the disease du jour," by Ann Hulbert. Posted March 28, 2007.

"Ivory-Tower Ambassador: The studying, and selling, of America," by Christopher Benfey. Posted March 28, 2007.

"In a Land Far, Far Away: How I wrote a memoir about my father," by Danielle Trussoni. Posted March 28, 2007.

"Publish, Then Flee: How to tell your family you're writing about them," by Sean Wilsey. Posted March 28, 2007.

"Road to Nowhere: My life as a victim of Hurricane Katrina and the ineffectual Road Home program," by Blake Bailey. Posted March 27, 2007.

"When Irish Tongues Are Talking: How I told my colleagues, family, and former countrymen I was writing about them," by Frank McCourt. Post March 27, 2007.

"The Woman Warrior at 30: Maxine Hong Kingston's secrets and lies," by Jess Row. Posted March 27, 2007.

"My, Myself, and I: The role of autobiography in contemporary poetry," by Dan Chiasson and Meghan O'Rourke. Posted March 27, 2007.

"What the Little Old Ladies Feel: How I told my mother about my memoir," by Alison Bechdel. Posted March 27, 2007.

"The Liars' Club: How I told my friends I was writing about my childhood—and what they said in return," by Mary Karr. Posted March 27, 2007.

Whatever your position on the memoir, I hope you'll start a dialogue here.

Comments

[Deb]

My position on memoir straddles the fence. I have read some wonderful memoirs. I have also read some so-called memoirs which amounted to nothing more than spoiled childish tattling.

Will I ultimately publish a memoir of my own? It's too early to say for sure. But I write it all down just in case. And in the meantime I usually get something out of it that I had missed at the time the events occurred.

[Lisa R.]

When is some really smart person in publishing (or PR?) going to come up with a new name for memoirs that are not truthful? No one in the business seems willing to call them fiction anymore.