A small portion of my memoir library
Depending on whom you ask—or what lens you apply—memoir is either a boomlet that burst or a timeless form just now coming into its own. The first lens, the literary lens, gets a fair amount of press attention. The second lens, a more hidden one, may need a little more magnification. While I believe memoir is just coming into its own, let’s look at a few expert views.
The Literary Lens: A Genre Comes Into Its Own
Some call our time “the age of memoir,” most notably William Zinsser in Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir (1998).
Thomas Larson, in The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading & Writing and Personal Narrative (2007), makes memoir sound like Davy Crockett when he says it burst forth “sui generis from the castle of autobiography and the wilds of the personal essay.”
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Read the rest at Jane Friedman’s blog here. Be sure to read the comments at the end. And add one of your own!
Bex
It’s good to hear Memoir writing has a niche. I’m in the process of completing mine, editing it like mad so that it’s not boring and the main character and supplimentary characters are relatable/likeable, etc.
shirleyhs
Bex, thanks for stopping by. All best with your memoir. Let’s stay in touch.
Richard Gilbert
Your guest post is very interesting, Shirley, and only whets my thirst—doubtless forever to be unslaked—to know the answer to this riddle. Love the glimpse of your great memoir bookshelf, too. It would be interesting to know which ones have most helped you in your own memoir writing process.
shirleyhs
Richard, thanks much for your kind words about the post. It was really fun to meet some new people by guest posting and also to have a new conversation with “old” friends like you.
Thanks for participating.
I hope to go back to my top ten list and reread some of them for guidance as I get to the revision stage next month. Here’s the list. http://www.shirleyshowalter.com/top-memoir-lists/