The art of memoir

Karr, Mary, author.

Book 2016

In the Art of Memoir, master memoirist Mary Karr synnthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and "black-belt sinner," providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favourite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays b...

Item Details & Discovery

Explore Topics & Themes:

Autobiography Authorship

Autobiography Study and teaching

Autobiography as a literary form

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ISBN:

9780062223074

Description:

xxiii, 229 pages ; 21 cm

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-226)

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1.The Past's Vigor
2.The Truth Contract Twixt Writer and Reader
3.Why Not to Write a Memoir: Plus a Pop Quiz to Protect the Bleeding & Box Out the Rigid
4.A Voice Conjures the Human Who Utters It
5.Don't Try This at Home: The Seductive, Narcissistic Count
6.Sacred Carnality
7.How to Choose a Detail
8.Hucksters, the Deluded, and Big Fat Liars
9.Interiority and Inner Enemy---Private Agonies Read Deeper Than External Whammies
10.On Finding the Nature of Your Talent
11.The Visionary Maxine Hong Kingston
12.Dealing with Beloveds (On and Off the Page)
13.On Information, Facts, and Data
14.Personal Run-ins with Fake Voices
15.On Book Structure and the Order of Information
16.The Road to Hell Is Paved with Exaggeration
17.Blind Spots and False Selves
18.Truth Hunger: The Public and Private Burning of Kathryn Harrison
19.Old-School Technologies for the Stalled Novice
20.Major Reversals in Cherry and Lit
21.Why Memoirs Fail
22.An Incomplete Checklist to Stave Off Dread
23.Michael Herr: Start in Kansas, End in Oz
24.Against Vanity: In Praise of Revision

Control Number:

3289406

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