Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir

by
Author: 
William Zinsser
Published in 1998
by Mariner Books

Anyone undertaking the project of writing a memoir knows that the events, memories, and emotions of the past often resist the orderly structure of a book. Inventing the Truth offers wisdom from nine notable memoirists about their process (Ian Frazier searched through generations of family papers to understand his parents' lives), the hurdles they faced (Annie Dillard tackles the central dilemma of memoir: what to put in and what to leave out), and the unexpected joys of bringing their pasts to the page.

Super Bowl

The Time Is Now
2.5.14

Some of the most revealing scenes in fiction occur when characters gather for an event. The Super Bowl offers an opportunity for friends, whether they are sports fans or not, to do just that. This week, write a scene in which your protagonist is watching the Super Bowl. Is he or she playing host? Begrudgingly attending an ex’s party? Which team does he or she root for? What happens during the commercials? Sporting events provide wonderful opportunities for tension and elation. How will your characters engage with this event?

Carolyn Forché

Submitted by klarimer on

PBS NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown recently talked with Carolyn Forché, whose new anthology, Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English 1500-2001, published last month by W. W. Norton, contains the work of poets who have witnessed war, imprisonment, torture, and slavery. Forché calls the collection an "outcry of the soul." 

Laughter

The Time Is Now
2.4.14

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter,” wrote E. E. Cummings. Timing is important both in comedy and in poetry. Though poets often engage with serious subjects, a well-placed moment of levity can make a poem even more poignant. This week, try to incorporate humor in your own writing. It can be a funny image, a pun, or a parody. See how this moment affects the tone of your poem, or how it leads you in a new, unexpected direction.

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Submitted by klarimer on

The late actor is seen here in the 2005 film Capote, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. In this scene, Hoffman portrays Truman Capote as he visits Perry Smith and Richard Hickock prior to their execution for the 1959 murder of Herbert Clutter and his family, as chronicled in Capote's 1966 book In Cold Blood.

Martin Scorsese’s NYRB Documentary, Literary Heirs of James Joyce, and More

by
Evan Smith Rakoff
Daily News
2.3.14

Martin Scorsese’s new documentary about the New York Review of Books will be shown as a work-in-progress at Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale; Rivka Galchen and Pankaj Mishra discuss the contemporary heirs of the innovative modernist James Joyce; Apple could face $840 million in antitrust claims as a result of the e-book price-fixing trial; and other news.

Tags: 
bookselling | international authors | e-books

The Watcher of Vowels

Submitted by klarimer on

"How lovely it is to write with all these vowels." The latest short film from Motionpoems features Robert Bly's poem "The Watcher of Vowels," with design and animation by Matt Van Ekeren.

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