Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art

Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma

Some of the countryâ€™s most admired authorsâ€”including Andre Dubus III, Mark Doty, Marianne Leone, Michael Patrick MacDonald, Richard Blanco, Abigail Thomas, Kate Bornstein, Jerald Walker, and Kyoko Moriâ€”describe their treks through dark memories and breakthrough moments and attest to the healing power of putting words to experience.

What does it take to write an honest memoir? And what happens to us when we embark on that journey? Melanie Brooks sought guidance from the memoirists who most moved her to answer these questions. Called an essential book for creative writers by Poets & Writers, Writing Hard Stories is a unique compilation of authentic stories about the death of a partner, parent, or child; about violence and shunning; and about the process of writing. It will serve as a tool for teachers of writing and give readers an intimate look into the lives of the authors they love.

Authors profiled in Writing Hard Stories: Andre Dubus III, Sue William Silverman, Michael Patrick MacDonald, Joan Wickersham, Kyoko Mori, Richard Hoffman, Suzanne Strempek Shea, Abigail Thomas, Monica Wood, Mark Doty, Edwidge Dantict, Marianne Leone, Jerald Walker, Kate Bornstein, Jessica Handler, Richard Blanco, Alysia Abbott, and Kim Stafford

Insights from Writing Hard Stories

â€œWhy we endeavor collectively to write a book or paint a canvas or write a symphony...is to understand who we are as human beings, and itâ€™s that shared knowledge that somehow helps us to survive.â€â€”Richard Blanco

â€œHereâ€™s what you need to understand: your brothers [or family or friends] are going to have their own stories to tell. You donâ€™t have to tell the family story. You have to tell your story of being in that family.â€â€”Andre Dubus III

â€œWe all need a way to express or make something out of experiences that otherwise have no meaning. If what you want is clarity and meaning, you have to break the secrets over your knee and make something of those ingredients.â€â€”Abigail Thomas

â€œWhat we remember and how we remember it really tells us how we became who we became.â€â€”Michael Patrick MacDonald

â€œThe reason I write memoir is to be able to see the experience itself...I hardly know what I think until I write...Writing is a way to organize your life, give it a frame, give it a structure, so that you can really see what it was that happened.â€â€”Sue William Silverman

â€œAfter a while in the process, you have some distance and you start thinking of it as a story, not as your story...It was a personal grief, but no longer personal...[Itâ€™s] something that has not just happened to me and my family, but something thatâ€™s happened in the world.â€â€”Edwidge Danticat

â€œTibetan Buddhists believe that eloquence is the telling of a truth in such a way that it eases suffering...The more suffering that is eased by your telling of the truth, the more eloquent you are. Thatâ€™s all you can really hope forâ€”being eloquent in that fashion. All you have to do is respond to your story honestly, and thatâ€™s the ideal.â€â€”Kate Bornstein

â€œYou can never entirely redeem the experience. You canâ€™t make it not hurt anymore. But you can make it beautiful enough so that thereâ€™s something to balance it in the other scale. And if you understand that word beautiful as not necessarily pretty, then youâ€™re getting close to recognizing the integrative power of restoring the balance, which is restoring the truth.â€â€”Richard Hoffman
Country USA
Brand Beacon Press
Manufacturer Beacon Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 0807078816_used
Color White
ReleaseDate 2017-02-07
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780807078815

Country	USA
Brand	Beacon Press
Manufacturer	Beacon Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	0807078816_used
Color	White
ReleaseDate	2017-02-07
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780807078815

Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma

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