Must-Reads for Future Memoirists
20 items ranked
If you think you’re ready to write your first memoir, take a moment to familiarize with the tradition of the genre by reading at least a few of these titles.
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1.
Lying – Lauren Slater
1 point - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
2.
Don’t Leave Me Lonely – Claudia Rankine
1 point - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
3.
The Woman Warrior – Maxine Hong Kingston
1 point - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
4.
Auschwitz & After – Charlotte Delbo
This trilogy focuses on Delbo’s pre-arrest life, time in several concentration camps, and, most poignantly, her life after her release from Auschwitz.
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
5.
The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
This memoir is a mesmerizing account of Didion’s attempts to cope with the sudden death of her husband.
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
6.
Dog Years – Mark Doty
One of Doty’s best works of nonfiction, Dog Years chronicles the life spans of his two golden retrievers while exploring humans’ relationships to dogs, life and death.
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
7.
The Solace of Open Spaces – Gretel Erlich
This is a collection of beautiful autobiographical essays about living in rural Wyoming.
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
8.
The Art of Time in Memoir – Sven Birkerts
This collection of essays offers helpful and easy-to-read analyses of how time has been negotiated in memoirs throughout history.
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
9.
The Situation and the Story – Vivian Gornick
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
10.
Autobiography of a Face – Lucy Grealy
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
11.
The Starched Blue Sky of Spain – Josephine Herbst
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
12.
Operating Instructions – Anne Lamott
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
13.
Survival in Auschwitz – Primo Levi
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
14.
Bachelorhood – Phillip Lopate
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
15.
Remembering the Bonehouse – Nancy Mairs
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
16.
In the Shadow of Memory – Floyd Skloot
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
17.
Memories of a Catholic Girlhood – Mary McCarthy
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
18.
Lucky – Alice Sebold
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
19.
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly – Jean-Dominique Bauby
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
20.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard
0 points - added 13 years ago by phdlist -
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