Bodies, Covid-19, and Cancer
I live in my head, as do many writers, but I’ve been thinking about bodies lately. This is partly because this month I am in a writing workshop where we are writing essays on what the body remembers. Not much, if I ask mine. My head knows that there were triumphs and...
Patching the Past Together in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Finding the bigger story requires always requires you to let go of the small one in your head. To open up to the messy realities, the uncertainties, the multiple interpretations.
What I Wish I Had Said in my Essay About Abortion: an addendum
When “Waterbabies” was accepted for publication by Memoir Magazine last year, I was elated. It was my first “yes” from a literary magazine. The editor asked only for a slight reorganization to emphasize my focus on healing, to not end on the word “blood.” I made the...
Fear and Loathing in Memoir Writing
Sometimes my memoir writing seems like a chain of encounters with ditched selves who keep showing up. Of course it is me who sent out the invitations. Me who set the table and prepared the food. Why then do I find myself wanting to hide in the broom closet or under...
Memoir Writing: Finding my Way Back Out of the Dark Places
To explore my past, I have to provide my own guideline. With it, I must tie myself to the pillar of the present before I start traipsing around twists and turns in the dark. At the end of the writing day, I have to hand over hand reel myself back to my present self.