The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire #102: Natasha Williams
"I deeply appreciate the way writing stories helps us make sense of our lives, and can invite a broader conversation about humanizing living with mental illness."
Since 2010, in various publications, I’ve interviewed authors—mostly memoirists—about aspects of writing and publishing. Initially I did this for my own edification, as someone who was struggling to find the courage and support to write and publish my memoir. I’m still curious about other authors’ experiences, and I know many of you are, too. So, inspired by the popularity of The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire, I’ve launched The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire.
Here’s the 102nd installment, featuring Natasha Williams, author of The Parts of Him I Kept: The Gifts of My Father’s Madness. -Sari Botton
P.S. Check out all the interviews in The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire series.
Natasha Williams has worked as an adjunct biology professor at SUNY Ulster in the Hudson Valley of New York and as a consultant for the International Public-School Network, coaching science teachers. She has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2020, she continued working on the manuscript summers at the Bread Loaf School of English and at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 2023. Excerpts of The Parts of Him I Kept, forthcoming April 2025 from Apprentice House Press, have been published in the Bread Loaf Journal, Change Seven, LIT, Memoir Magazine, Onion River Review, Writers Read, Post Road, and South Dakota Review. Learn more about her at Natashawilliamswriter.com.
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How old are you, and for how long have you been writing?
I just turned 60 February 20th, 2025! I have journals from my 20s and 30s I find mortifying to read. But I didn’t start writing with readers in mind until my I was in my 40s writing as part of the sandwich generation, with kids at home and an aging parent needing care.
What’s the title of your latest book, and when was it published?
The Parts of Him I Kept: The Gifts of My Father’s Madness. It came out with Apprentice House Press April 29th, 2025.
What number book is this for you?
This is my debut book.
How do you categorize your book—as a memoir, memoir-in-essays, essay collection, creative nonfiction, graphic memoir, autofiction—and why?
The Parts of Him I Kept is a memoir that follows and what some call letter e structure. It starts at a moment of crisis and takes the reader back in time to understand how we got there. This structure felt like the best fit for a book that aims to humanize lives lived on the margins of mental illness, addiction and to show the power of my father’s love despite his illness.
What is the “elevator pitch” for your book?
“The Parts of Him I Kept is an intimate account of a daughters coming of age in the face of her father’s schizophrenic unraveling. Williams investigates the limits of our medical and cultural understanding of schizophrenia while chronicling the shared burden and benefits of caring for a mentally ill family member. In the tradition of Michael Greenberg’s Hurry Down Sunshine and Robert Kolker’s Hidden Valley Road, The Parts of Him I Kept asks us to consider the ways mental illness is as much a social issue as a biological condition.”
The Parts of Him I Kept is a memoir that follows and what some call letter e structure. It starts at a moment of crisis and takes the reader back in time to understand how we got there. This structure felt like the best fit for a book that aims to humanize lives lived on the margins of mental illness, addiction and to show the power of my father’s love despite his illness.
What’s the back story of this book including your origin story as a writer? How did you become a writer, and how did this book come to be?
When my father needed more help than we could give him in his home I set out to find an assisted living facility that would accept an aging schizophrenic. The place we found was somewhere between a halfway house and a senior home, with a variety of characters who, like him, felt like exiles in their own country.
I wrote an essay about the people we met and the ways finding him institutional care reminded me of his history. I wrote about being his child and being his caregiver and caring for children of my own. Based on that essay I was encouraged to write the whole story.
What were the hardest aspects of writing this book and getting it published?
I think the hardest part was figuring out where the story started. Which took writing it from a variety of different entry points which ultimately helped me better understand what the story was really about.
The hardest part of getting it published was finding an editor who saw the potential appeal of a memoir about mental illness and resilience, and a publisher willing to take a chance on a non-commercial literary work of creative nonfiction.
How did you handle writing about real people in your life? Did you use real or changed names and identifying details? Did you run passages or the whole book by people who appear in the narrative? Did you make changes they requested?
For the central characters in the story, I sent them chapters where they were front and center and asked them if there was anything they needed me to take out or change to be comfortable. Most of the time my family felt the writing made them visible and seen. Sometimes I included their feedback in the narrative when their POV illuminated something new. I used a combination of real names and pseudonyms—in particular I used pseudonyms for some family members I discovered in writing the story to protect their privacy. I also used a pseudonym for my sister’s father who I didn’t want to have contact with.
When my father needed more help than we could give him in his home I set out to find an assisted living facility that would accept an aging schizophrenic. The place we found was somewhere between a halfway house and a senior home, with a variety of characters who, like him, felt like exiles in their own country. I wrote an essay about the people we met and the ways finding him institutional care reminded me of his history. I wrote about being his child and being his caregiver and caring for children of my own.
Who is another writer you took inspiration from in producing this book? Was it a specific book, or their whole body of work? (Can be more than one writer or book.)
I often turn to James Baldwin when I want to hear concise and deeply thought-out prose. Ocean Vuongs On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous was like a lighthouse for me when I was feeling out to sea writing this story down. Lost Children Archives by Valeria Luiselli’s beautiful pros inspired the way I thought about being a parent and writing about it and Ingrid Rojas Contreras, The Man Who Could Move Clouds charted a course for how we convey our liminal worlds. Lastly, I was reading Alex Lesnevich’s, The Fact of a Body when I was working on a later draft, which gave me the courage it took to write the epilogue.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers looking to publish a book like yours, who are maybe afraid, or intimidated by the process?
Get support—join writing groups, find trusted readers. Later in the process, create a Beta group to test the story before putting it out to publishers or agents. If you can afford it, don’t rush your book.
What do you love about writing?
I love the way words carry rhythm and feeling to render an experience that I hope will move a reader. I also deeply appreciate the way writing stories helps us make sense of our lives, and can invite a broader conversation in the case of The Parts of Him I Kept, about humanizing living with mental illness.
What frustrates you about writing?
It’s hard to figure out what I have to say, what needs saying, what a story is really about. Also, its frustrating how commercial the publishing industry, how agents and editors won’t even open a manuscript unless they think your query is marketable.
What about writing surprises you?
The way stories start to tell themselves. Facts present themselves; people show up and new aspects reveal themselves as if the world is telling the story with me.
Does your writing practice involve any kind of routine, or writing at specific times?
I write most days. With breaks for holidays, busy weekends and when company arrives.
I don’t write at the same time of day but I do block in writing hours, especially when I’m not using my time to write regularly. I write best first thing in the morning and by late afternoon I don’t have much to say.
I think the hardest part was figuring out where the story started. Which took writing it from a variety of different entry points which ultimately helped me better understand what the story was really about.
Do you engage in any other creative pursuits, professionally or for fun? Are there non-writing activities do you consider to be “writing” or supportive of your process?
Biking and hiking; being outside and moving. Seeing art, listening to music. Once this book launch is more lined up I would like to get back out onto the river to crew with the Kingston Crew club. And I’ve always wanted to play Cello, but unlike writing I tire of practicing when I’m playing music. Maybe it would be different if I could compose music?
What’s next for you? Do you have another book planned, or in the works?
I’ve been writing about my mother’s penchant for psychotic and incarcerated men braided with my own pathological feelings and our cultural fascination psychopathic personalities. Honestly the essay isn’t working right now—I think because I haven’t gotten to what it’s really about.
I imagine it could be a book if it starts writing itself.
The benefits of being a carer are rarely considered. It’s so often framed as martyrdom. Your title tells us it isn’t.
I had never heard of the letter e structure before and that's exactly how I'm structuring my memoir! I'm glad I have more resources to look into because of this.