memoir Archives - Women Writers, Women's Books

Dresses—Reinvented

Deborah Burns — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 04:06:50 +0000

When I was the Chief Brand Officer of ELLE Décor and Metropolitan Home, there was a showroom-event-a-minute and a trade show every month. It was a role that demanded that I look the part—stylish, sophisticated, and decked out in designer clothes. The first two I had reasonably down, but any funds for a high-end brand wardrobe were limited. […]

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Why I Wrote The Burn Zone

Renee Linnell — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 05:44:19 +0000

I wrote The Burn Zone as a catharsis; I had to get the story out of me. Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” I believe she is right. The story was consuming me. It was tearing me apart from within. I was filled with […]

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Basia Briggs on Writing Memoir

Basia Briggs — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 08:46:13 +0000

Basia Briggs is a luminary of the London social scene and a distinguished fundraiser, having played a fundamental part in the installation of the Queen Mother’s Gate in 1993 and the regeneration of Hyde Park Corner. She has written for various publications including The Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Born in London, she emigrated briefly to Australia before returning to […]

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To Play Again

Carol Rosenberger — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 07:29:28 +0000

At age twenty-one, while she was working with the legendary Nadia Boulanger in France, concert pianist Carol Rosenberger was stricken with paralytic polio—a condition that knocked out the very muscles she needed in order to play. But Rosenberger refused to give up. Over the next ten years, against all medical advice, she struggled to rebuild […]

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Release Your Inner Book—Two Pages at a Time

Mary K. Jensen — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 18:39:30 +0000

Do you have an unwritten book inside you? You may have been hearing that inner voice that says “Quick, find a post-it, write that down.” Maybe you find yourself stepping back in life, viewing encounters from a far-away place and hearing words that describe the chaos or angst or bliss. Whether stuffing the post-its […]

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Writing Life With Brain Injury: After The Memoir

Deb Brandon — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 11:27:03 +0000

My first reader review of But My Brain Had Other Ideas: A Memoir of Recovery from Brain Injury appeared within a week of the book’s release. It was from the father of a brain injury survivor. He wrote, “. . .her journey. . .gave me insight, from an adult perspective, . . .[and] reference points […]

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Do Other Memoir Writers Have This Experience?

Betty Hafner — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 10:52:01 +0000

I’ll be briskly writing away at my desk, feeling like I’m in the zone, and the words are sliding out onto the page from that sweet spot inside. A scene from that time of my life will come to me. It’s a flash of memory that’s crystal clear. I see myself there, in that setting, […]

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The Tape on the Cutting Room Floor

Gayle Greene — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 10:13:40 +0000

I never intended to write a memoir. I didn’t even like memoirs—novels have been my drug of choice since I was a kid, and my trade, as well, as a professor of literature. I was a bit of a snob about memoirs, to tell the truth. I’d read reviews and think, oh no, not another […]

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The Unglamorous Part Of Writing

Emily Morris — Sat, 13 Jan 2018 11:37:18 +0000

Writing is a solitary profession and extremely unglamorous. When I write, I need zero distractions: no Twitter, dirty dishes, Rightmove, eBay, Netflix or wine. In order to finish my book, I knew I needed to remove myself from all of these things, which is how I ended up in a rudimentary cabin on the moors, […]

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Shades of Brave In Memoir

Andrea Jarrell — Sat, 09 Dec 2017 08:37:46 +0000

If you write memoir or personal essay you’ve no doubt heard this: You’re so brave. As if memoir is about confessing to having had certain feelings or experiences. When I first began publishing personal essays, I understood the comment but was perplexed by it because it seemed so far from my intentions. I didn’t feel […]

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