Why We Write About Ourselves: Twenty Memoirists on Why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature

In the voices of twenty landmark memoirists—including New York Times bestselling authors Cheryl Strayed, Sue Monk Kidd, and Pat Conroy—a definitive text on the craft of autobiographical writing, indispensable for amateur and professional writers alike.

For readers of Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir and Judith Barrington’s Writing the Memoir, this follow-up to editor Meredith Maran’s acclaimed writers’ handbook, Why We Write, offers inspiration, encouragement, and pithy, practical advice for bloggers, journal-keepers, aspiring essayists, and memoirists.
 
Curated and edited by Maran, herself an acclaimed author and book critic, these memoirists share the lessons they’ve learned through years of honing their craft. They reveal what drives them to tell their personal stories and examine the nuts and bolts of how they do it. Speaking frankly about issues ranging from turning oneself into an authentic, compelling character to exposing hard truths, these outstanding authors disclose what keeps them going, what gets in their way, and what they love most—and least—about writing about themselves.
 
“It's possible that Why We Write About Ourselves is the first compilation of memoirists at the top of their game seriously and thoughtfully considering the genre.”
– LA Times

• Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art, Second Edit
• The Art of Memoir
• Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir
• Unreliable Truth
• Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life
• Why We Write: 20 Acclaimed Authors on How and Why They Do What They Do
• The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life
• Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives
• Imaginal Remembering: Our Soul's Journey Through Memory and Imagination
• Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood