Book

The Art of Memoir

Mary Karr

A comprehensive guide to writing memoir that explores the form's democratic nature, technical craft, and power to convey lived truth. Karr draws on decades of reading, teaching, and writing memoirs to offer practical advice on voice, structure, detail selection, and authenticity.

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Appears in

What this book knows

Writing true memoir demands ruthless honesty about your inner life, not just accurate facts about the outer world.

Sex: Present
Work: Primary
Learning: Primary
Religion: Present

self-and-identitytrauma-and-survivalcalling

self-and-identity

every time I picked up a pen, this grinding, unnamed fear overcame me—later identified as fear that my real self would spill out
AM-RC-101
voice must confess to readers any moral bankruptcy... I was a liar. I couldn't help but try to introduce new versions of myself
AM-RC-043

trauma-and-survival

I want you to suffer through sitting in a room for some hours with your worst memories... a centering exercise to get underneath your normal ego
AM-RC-033
Kathryn Harrison was inwardly scalded into writing one of the bravest memoirs in recent memory, only to be blistered by the press for it
AM-RC-126

calling

I spent nine hard, exasperating, concentrated months on the first chapter of Liars' Club alone—essentially time developing that voice
AM-RC-112
my sole job is to help students fall in love with what I already worship—I show you stuff I've read that I can't live without
AM-RC-008

Illuminates

6 published passages · book excerpt · research analysis

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