The award winning stage actress and star of “Weeds” talks about her first book, a set of letters to male figures real and imagined. A conversation with Michele Filgate.
Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.
For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning graduate teaching prizes for her highly selective seminar at Syracuse, where she mentored such future hit authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas. In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes 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 favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.
Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.
The Art of Memoir
Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.
For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning graduate teaching prizes for her highly selective seminar at Syracuse, where she mentored such future hit authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas. In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes 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 favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.
Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.
11.99
In Stock
5
1
The Art of Memoir
256
The Art of Memoir
256Related collections and offers
11.99
In Stock
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780062223081 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 09/15/2015 |
| Sold by: | HARPERCOLLINS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| Sales rank: | 50,664 |
| File size: | 446 KB |
About the Author
From the B&N Reads Blog
Videos
Customer Reviews
Explore More Items
Socrates Fortlow, an ex-convict forced to define his own morality in a lawless world, confronts wrongs that most people would rather ignore and comes face-to-face with the most dangerous emotion:
Ptolemy Bent--"Popo"--is different. At an age when most babies are cooing "Mama, " Popo was speaking in complete sentences. He was reading college textbooks when he was still too young for nursery
Walter Mosley’s talent knows no bounds. Love Machine is one of six fragments in the Crosstown to Oblivion short novels in which Mosley entertainingly explores life’s cosmic
New York Times–Bestselling Author: A minimum-wage worker-turned-multimillionaire turns his mind to cosmic mysteries upon meeting an alien being . . .
Raleigh Redman
Book Three of the Magic Kingdom of Landover Series
It all began when the half-able wizard Questor Thews announced that finally he could restore the Court Scribe Abernathy to human form. It was his
It all began when the half-able wizard Questor Thews announced that finally he could restore the Court Scribe Abernathy to human form. It was his
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Since the death of the Druid Allanon, the Four Lands have changed profoundly, with magic strictly forbidden in the Southland, now under totalitarian rule. Yet Par still
Since the death of the Druid Allanon, the Four Lands have changed profoundly, with magic strictly forbidden in the Southland, now under totalitarian rule. Yet Par still
In Running with the Demon, Terry Brooks does nothing less than revitalize fantasy fiction, inventing the complex and powerful new mythos of the Word and the Void, good versus evil still, but played
Now in one thrilling volume–experience the magic, the intrigue, and the exciting escapades of the final two novels in Terry Brooks’s spellbinding Magic Kingdom of Landover series
All
All
"One of the best of the year...a compelling novella about a once-famous actress and her devoted manager who get much more publicity of an unfortunate sort when they inadvertently become embroiled
Girls, Boys, Robots - Everyone is Welcome here!
This stellar collection will appeal to both teens and grown-ups who dream of future worlds. ~Kirkus Starred Review
What’s it like to be
In a world where the slightest edge can mean the difference between success and failure, Leisha Camden is beautiful, extraordinarily intelligent ... and one of an ever-growing number of human beings
Reality TV meets a chillingly realistic version of America--and the fame game is on!
Amy had dreams of going to college, until the Collapse destroyed the economy and her future. Now she is desperate
Amy had dreams of going to college, until the Collapse destroyed the economy and her future. Now she is desperate
Hank Mallone knows he's in trouble when Maggie Toone agrees to pretend to be his wife in order to improve his rogue's reputation. Will his harebrained scheme to get a bank loan for his business
For months he’d thought of her as the Mystery Woman, draped in a black velvet cloak, with outrageous red curls, flawless skin, and carrying a large, odd case — but the night David Dodd
This #1 New York Times bestseller from Janet Evanovich moves into the fast lane with a thrilling, high-octane misadventure with high stakes, hot nights, cold-blooded murder, sunken treasure, a woman