The Big News:
My Adventure Memoir - Force of Nature is almost here!
September 28, 2023 - Book is officially “released,” meaning it can be ordered online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Black Rose Writing, and it can be ordered at your local bookstore or library, too.
October 21, 2023 - Book is “launched,” meaning I’m hosting a first fun event, like a big birthday party, to celebrate the birth of my book! If you’re in the neighborhood that day, be sure to join the fun in the Foothills Room at Canyon View Park in Auburn from 2pm to 4pm. There will be food and fun, and I will be signing books (and selling them, too, of course.) Email me at joangriff@gmail.com to get on the list to receive updates and invites!
Other Author & Book Events - I have two OLLI at Sierra College events scheduled:
Travel Tuesday Talk - October 3
Brown Bag Interview with my two hiking partners - October 13
More events at bookstores and libraries forthcoming.
If you are a book club member and would like to schedule a talk, I’m happy to join you.
For more information, be sure to subscribe to this newsletter and check out my website at joangriffin.us
What is a Memoir Anyway??
Good question! It’s kinda like an autobiography, but not. It’s kinda like a novel, but not. So what is it? It’s a little of both, but not all of either. Got that? Following is an fanciful essay I wrote to attempt to answer that question. It first appeared in editor/writer Rebecca Inch-Partidge’s blog/newsletter.
Memoir as Chimera
“For who will testify, who will accurately describe our lives, if we do not do it ourselves?” ~ Faye Moskowitz
The term chimera, originally used to describe a mythical creature—part lion, part goat, and part snake—has come to mean any fanciful hybrid animal created by combining parts of two or more creatures. By this definition, my favorite, the Griffin—with its lion’s body and eagle’s head and wings—is a magnificent chimera.
Metaphorically speaking, a well-written memoir is a chimera, too!
Memoir is equal parts one’s true-life story (nonfiction) and good literary storytelling (creative writing skills).
An elegantly crafted memoir has the body and tail of a well-researched autobiography combined with the head, heart, and wings of an artfully-created, multilayered novel.
“What is [memoir] but life with the dull bits cut out.” ~ paraphrasing Alfred Hitchcock
The chimera’s nonfiction body and tail:
Wikipedia’s definition of Memoir includes this: “An autobiography tells the story ‘of a life’, while a memoir often tells a story ‘from a life’, such as touchstone events and turning points from the author's life.”
Autobiography tells the blow-by-blow story of a whole life, generally a VIP’s life.
Memoir narrows the focus down to a short, significant period of time or to a specific theme over a longer span of time.
As nonfiction, memoirs must be true, based on the author’s best recollection, even if their personal truth is uncomfortable.
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” ~ Ernest Hemingway
The chimera’s narrative or storytelling head, heart, and wings:
The author is both narrator and main character, so memoir is a first-hand story with a first-person perspective. Good memoir is captivating storytelling and borrows the best literary techniques from novelists.
Plot, characters, setting, dialogue.
Metaphor, irony, personification, flashback.
Tension, mystery, sensory details.
Reflections, emotional reactions, inner thoughts and feelings.
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” ~ Anais Nin
Memoirist as chimera or chimera-builder:
The memoir chimera is part of the larger literary category narrative nonfiction or creative nonfiction. It combines the Truth (with a capital T) of nonfiction composition with the creative power of narrative storytelling. Page Flutter writes on her blog that a memoir’s “truth rests in the experience of the author. It’s about finding emotional truth as much as factual truth.
The memoirist must dig deep to tell a compelling story that is both personal and universal.
The memoirist must take on the mantles of both novelist/storyteller and personal or family historian.
On the other hand, memoir gives authors great latitude to experiment with every literary technique under the sun.
Narrative, poetry, interview, intercalary chapters...
Parallel or braided narratives, multiple voices...
Flashback, flashforward, unfolding memories...
While all memoirs are personal stories that reflect on the author’s experiences and place in the world, most memoir contain broader themes as well. By sharing his/her own life experiences in the wider world, an author might also reflect on the more universal themes of cultural history, travel and adventure, the social/political environment, the world of science, the environmental, entertainment, and more.
“You're going to feel like hell if you wake up someday and you never wrote the stuff that’s tugging on the sleeves of your heart: your stories, memories, visions & songs – your truth, your version of things – in your own voice.” ~ Anne Lamott
Following is a list of contemporary memoirs you might be interested in reading. Perhaps you’ve read some of these titles? Do you have other favorites you could recommend?
Educated by Tara Westover
All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
How The Word Is Passed by Clint Smith
Born A Crime by Trevor Noah
When We Rise by Cleve Jones
An American Family by Khizr Khan
My Own Country by Abraham Verghese
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Finding The Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Highs And Lows On The John Muir Trail by Inga Aksamit
The Sharp End Of Life by Dierdre Wolownick
High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson
It’s All About The Bike by Robert Penn
And, of course, my own memoir, Force of Nature: Three Women Tackle the John Muir Trail, and Adventure Memoir due out in September 2023.
Books Going Onscreen!
In my last newsletter, I speculated on what books would make great movies (or TV series). Happily, I was right about one title, Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, which will be a series on AppleTV later this year. (Yay!) There’s more good news:
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann debuted to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival and is due in theaters in October!
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles is coming some time in 2024.
It would be terrific to hear from you. What memoir have your read? Recommend?