"I’m uncomfortable writing memoir. On some level I don’t understand why anything I claim really happened should be more reliable or truthful than my fiction."
" I don’t understand why anything I claim really happened should be more reliable or truthful than my fiction." What a fascinating concept. I need to mull this one over!!
I greatly enjoyed this interview, especially as when I wrote my memoir, one thread was deeply personal and I couldn't imagine writing it for all those eyes. As it turns out, I followed the same tack as the concern about litigious uncle mentioned here--I wrote the story, included the hardest part, and have no regrets. I'm glad to note that writing the hardest thing and owning my truth has made me a stronger person. Anyway, great interview. And I love the Steens Mountains and am just southeast of Portland, OR myself.
YAY! I loved this book and I'm so happy to see it highlighted in Memoir Land! Can't wait for other readers to discover it and love it as much as I did.
Emily, I'm having goosebumps just from your title, "Daughterhood." We women have all been daughters to someone; some of us also have daughters which of course changes everything we may think and feel about our mothers. You're so young (well not to yourself as on any given day we're always the oldest age we've ever been) yet I see you as someone who has front-loaded, telescoped an entire lifetime into a decade of adolescence and young adulthood--you will never run out of writing material! In my debut memoir I explored the sandwich experience of having AND being a mother in two chapters, one titled "Still A Mother," and the other titled "Still a Daughter," as my daughter got married and my mother died at almost the same time. Sari Botton also helped to adapt those chapters for an Oldster essay, which took me deeper into the raw emotion of daughterhood and motherhood than I'd ever gone before: https://oldster.substack.com/p/bonding-with-my-daughter-before-she
Congratulations, Emily, on your book! I have loved reading your questionnaire.
Beautiful. I feel the same in so many ways especially the parts where my family and life are my greatest distractions from the work but also without them what would the work be about? Just lovely.
" I don’t understand why anything I claim really happened should be more reliable or truthful than my fiction." What a fascinating concept. I need to mull this one over!!
And I'm totally buying your book discussed in this interview, btw.
I greatly enjoyed this interview, especially as when I wrote my memoir, one thread was deeply personal and I couldn't imagine writing it for all those eyes. As it turns out, I followed the same tack as the concern about litigious uncle mentioned here--I wrote the story, included the hardest part, and have no regrets. I'm glad to note that writing the hardest thing and owning my truth has made me a stronger person. Anyway, great interview. And I love the Steens Mountains and am just southeast of Portland, OR myself.
YAY! I loved this book and I'm so happy to see it highlighted in Memoir Land! Can't wait for other readers to discover it and love it as much as I did.
Emily, I'm having goosebumps just from your title, "Daughterhood." We women have all been daughters to someone; some of us also have daughters which of course changes everything we may think and feel about our mothers. You're so young (well not to yourself as on any given day we're always the oldest age we've ever been) yet I see you as someone who has front-loaded, telescoped an entire lifetime into a decade of adolescence and young adulthood--you will never run out of writing material! In my debut memoir I explored the sandwich experience of having AND being a mother in two chapters, one titled "Still A Mother," and the other titled "Still a Daughter," as my daughter got married and my mother died at almost the same time. Sari Botton also helped to adapt those chapters for an Oldster essay, which took me deeper into the raw emotion of daughterhood and motherhood than I'd ever gone before: https://oldster.substack.com/p/bonding-with-my-daughter-before-she
Congratulations, Emily, on your book! I have loved reading your questionnaire.
Beautiful. I feel the same in so many ways especially the parts where my family and life are my greatest distractions from the work but also without them what would the work be about? Just lovely.