Thank you for celebrating memoir like this and giving us such a broad and explorative path that all memoirs can join. It is truly evolving and it’s so refreshing to experience that and to teach with you as we look at new ways of thinking and writing and being in the world with our stories.
Like you, Brooke, I am excited, enthralled, entertained, and enlightened by all the new and fresh and innovative writers who are re-inventing the traditional memoir form. Beth Ann Fennelly's "Heating & Cooling–52 Micro Memoirs" knocked my socks off and Maia Kobabe's "Gender Queer" is one of the most beautiful graphic memoirs I've read. It is, again in 2023 as in 2022, the most banned book in America. And so many others I have loved. Thank you for introducing me to some I didn't know.
Brooke, I did change my trauma memoir structure based on Maggie Smith's memoir--You Could Make This Place Beautiful. I had put the manuscript aside for two months because I was covering 45 years and I could not figure out how to string all my vignettes together to create a novel-like book. The moment I saw what she did with her vignettes, I adopted the same structure with each vignette starting on a new page, yet maintaining the themes that I'm focusing on. It was THE answer for me. I got excited about the project again and I'm working on it with renewed vigor. I'm doing some experimentation. We'll see how it goes....Carol Ann Lapeyrouse.
Your post made me recall with great pleasure Art Spiegelman's two-part Maus: A Survivor's Tale and Maryjane Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.
The memoirs of Carmen Machado and Maggie Smith are two of my favorites which makes me very excited to read yours when it’s finished, Brooke. I have been inspired by Addrienne Brodeur’s Wild Game, Jeanette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, and Laura Love Hardin’s The Many Lives of Mama Love. So many books so little time. Can’t wait to check out some of the other books you mentioned.
I love your tribute to experimental memoir, Brooke! Thank you for shedding light on this wonderful genre. Here are some of my favorite titles written in fragmented/experimental form:
Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief by Victoria Chang
Descanso For My Father: Fragments of a Life by Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir by Nick Flynn
This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire: A Memoir by Nick Flynn
Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston
Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
I am so glad that the memoir's form is expanding and absorbing more people and their experiences. My memoir's structure fell into place after I read Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman. Though it is a novel, the short, titled chapters helped me see a way through my own fragmented childhood.
I will share this with the memoirists in my writing group. It drove home the point that agents expect traditional narrative and don’t like to veer from it because it’s what has sold and will sell. Hope that the trend builds in fiction circles as well. I do know there are agents who embrace non traditional story telling. Look at Rachel Cusk!
Great post, Brooke--I agree about this being the golden age of memoir! The structure of Cheryl Strayed's Wild influenced my own memoir, Honeymoon at Sea: How I Found Myself Living on a Small Boat. While working as an editor for other authors, I had worked on my manuscript for over twenty years and it took seeing her way of weaving the past into the present to illuminate my own book's structure. I also read your book Breaking Ground on Your Memoir which was highly inspirational.
Yes, it was an inspiring book for me in my memoir journey, along with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, and all the short & long memoir pieces by Ann Patchett.
I'm almost done reading an amazing novel, Disoriental, by Negar Djavadi. Like Vuong's, it reads like a memoir and includes many of the memoir writing strategies you've talked about, Brooke. I'm learning from it, and I write exclusively memoir and essay.
A great discussion is structure in memoir Brooke! I was inspired by Anne Carson’s Nox as well as The Glass Eye, by Jeannie Vanasco. Maggie Nelson, as you mention, and Ocean Voung as well. I would add Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother to my list. Thanks for this!
Thank you for celebrating memoir like this and giving us such a broad and explorative path that all memoirs can join. It is truly evolving and it’s so refreshing to experience that and to teach with you as we look at new ways of thinking and writing and being in the world with our stories.
It's such an honor to do this work with you!
Annie Ernaux The Years is holding my attention. It demands a lot of work from the reader, but pays off.
I have loved getting to know Ernaux's work. I agree that it pays off. Well said. :)
Like you, Brooke, I am excited, enthralled, entertained, and enlightened by all the new and fresh and innovative writers who are re-inventing the traditional memoir form. Beth Ann Fennelly's "Heating & Cooling–52 Micro Memoirs" knocked my socks off and Maia Kobabe's "Gender Queer" is one of the most beautiful graphic memoirs I've read. It is, again in 2023 as in 2022, the most banned book in America. And so many others I have loved. Thank you for introducing me to some I didn't know.
I adored Heating & Cooling. So pleased others have discovered it too!
Right back atcha. I hadn't heard of some of these so thank you!
Brooke, I did change my trauma memoir structure based on Maggie Smith's memoir--You Could Make This Place Beautiful. I had put the manuscript aside for two months because I was covering 45 years and I could not figure out how to string all my vignettes together to create a novel-like book. The moment I saw what she did with her vignettes, I adopted the same structure with each vignette starting on a new page, yet maintaining the themes that I'm focusing on. It was THE answer for me. I got excited about the project again and I'm working on it with renewed vigor. I'm doing some experimentation. We'll see how it goes....Carol Ann Lapeyrouse.
Very exciting, right? Yes, these long timelines are hard to wrangle. Good luck, Carol!
Liberating and exciting! Thank you!
This resonates so much with me! I just finished my memoir in a fragmented form and felt validated by those who have come before me.
Your post made me recall with great pleasure Art Spiegelman's two-part Maus: A Survivor's Tale and Maryjane Satrapi's Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood.
The memoirs of Carmen Machado and Maggie Smith are two of my favorites which makes me very excited to read yours when it’s finished, Brooke. I have been inspired by Addrienne Brodeur’s Wild Game, Jeanette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, and Laura Love Hardin’s The Many Lives of Mama Love. So many books so little time. Can’t wait to check out some of the other books you mentioned.
Great list!
I love your tribute to experimental memoir, Brooke! Thank you for shedding light on this wonderful genre. Here are some of my favorite titles written in fragmented/experimental form:
Dear Memory: Letters on Writing, Silence, and Grief by Victoria Chang
Descanso For My Father: Fragments of a Life by Harrison Candelaria Fletcher
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City: A Memoir by Nick Flynn
This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire: A Memoir by Nick Flynn
Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston
Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Just Breathe Normally by Peggy Shumaker
I love your list, Marty!! And our shared love of experimental memoir. ❤️
I am so glad that the memoir's form is expanding and absorbing more people and their experiences. My memoir's structure fell into place after I read Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman. Though it is a novel, the short, titled chapters helped me see a way through my own fragmented childhood.
It's been such a great class! As always I'm looking forward to your next one!
Thank you, Lisa. We love having you in our classes.
I will share this with the memoirists in my writing group. It drove home the point that agents expect traditional narrative and don’t like to veer from it because it’s what has sold and will sell. Hope that the trend builds in fiction circles as well. I do know there are agents who embrace non traditional story telling. Look at Rachel Cusk!
Great post, Brooke--I agree about this being the golden age of memoir! The structure of Cheryl Strayed's Wild influenced my own memoir, Honeymoon at Sea: How I Found Myself Living on a Small Boat. While working as an editor for other authors, I had worked on my manuscript for over twenty years and it took seeing her way of weaving the past into the present to illuminate my own book's structure. I also read your book Breaking Ground on Your Memoir which was highly inspirational.
Thanks, Jennifer! And love that you were inspired by Wild. It's been such a go-to for us in our teaching over the years.
Yes, it was an inspiring book for me in my memoir journey, along with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard, and all the short & long memoir pieces by Ann Patchett.
I'm almost done reading an amazing novel, Disoriental, by Negar Djavadi. Like Vuong's, it reads like a memoir and includes many of the memoir writing strategies you've talked about, Brooke. I'm learning from it, and I write exclusively memoir and essay.
Makes me want to write a memoir. But I am working on a poetry/ photo book that is disguised memoir !
The most beautiful structure for memoir I’ve ever encountered is Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome— and he happens to be a gay man of color.
Thank you. I will be checking this one out!
A great discussion is structure in memoir Brooke! I was inspired by Anne Carson’s Nox as well as The Glass Eye, by Jeannie Vanasco. Maggie Nelson, as you mention, and Ocean Voung as well. I would add Jamaica Kincaid’s My Brother to my list. Thanks for this!
Beautiful. Thank you!