Writers on Writing: Memoir Craft Books

With Curated Photos, a Poll and Links to Essays from my Memoir Manuscripts

Switching things up here today with a post about the craft of writing memoir, from the Archives... Thank you for indulging me in this repost. I am quite certain many of my readers have not read this post from January 2024. I was also recently asked in Notes about craft books on writing that I recommend in the past.

Pink Tulips on My Desk Today!

One of my founding members here,

DocTalk, Allan N Schwartz PhD

asked me to recommend some good craft books on memoir not too long ago. He remembered that I mentioned here that I write memoir and have two memoirs in process. I’ve shared a few pieces here from time to time that are from my manuscripts (see the links below).

In 2017 - 2019 when I was working on my Masters of Arts in Creative Writing at Salem State University in Massachusetts, my focus was primarily creative nonfiction and memoir with a little poetry thrown in.

I had already been collecting creative nonfiction craft books while working on my B.A. in Digital Communications and Creative Writing at University of Massachusetts Amherst. My concentration advisor at UMASS Amherst, Connie Griffin, PhD, was instrumental in my interest creative nonfiction and memoir. Her book To Tell the Truth: Practice and Craft in Narrative, is one of my top creative writing reference books to this day.

That said, I have a pretty good library on both topics that I will post more about in the future. One of my goals for Words and Pictures this year is to write more posts on the “Writers on Writing” topic including craft book recommendations and reviews.

Both of these books were assigned reading in the Creative Nonfiction/Memoir classes that I took while working on my M.A.

I think these two books are two of the top craft books on writing memoir:

1. “The Art of Memoir” by Mary Karr - Perhaps the definitive craft book on writing memoir. Mary Karr, who is best known for her memoir, The Liar’s Club, explores the in’s and out’s of memoir writing tackling topics like identity, memory, and one’s inner life.

2. “Writing the Memoir” by Judith Barrington - Barrington tackles tough topics like ethics and telling the truth, a often debated and discussed topic in memoir writing. One of the things I liked about reading “Writing the Memoir” is the “Suggestions for Writing” section at the end of each chapter. I think no matter how long a writer has been writing we can all benefit from writing prompts, as well as craft tips.

For many writers here on Substack, the personal essay is everything.

I think anyone who is writing personal essays on Substack or elsewhere online, or working on a memoir, can benefit from reading both of these books. I highly recommend them both.

I am planning to post more on the topic of Writer’’ on Writing as time permits for me. Lately I’ve been struggling with some health and home issues as some of my readers may know, thus another post from the Archives today.

Please stay tuned for new posts… Today’s post has been taken from the paywalled Archives here and repurposed with some revised text.

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Wishing you all a blessed and beautiful day today… Remember to breathe when things get stressful and as always, be kind to one another.

As I like to say, “Be in the moment and go with the flow.”

Blessed be… Pamela

I’ve been contemplating serializing my manuscript Reflections on the River here for quite some time now. I’d love some feedback from readers on that topic. Please take a moment to answer this poll:

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within is the book in the photos above. Another great craft book on creative writing that I recommend.

Related Posts - If you are interested in reading a little from both of my WIP’s here are two posts:

The first is from my manuscript, Gathering Wisdom and the second is from my manuscript, Reflections on the River.