This web site explores memoirs, the impulses that lead to them, the stylistic and observational skills required to write them, and the assumptions that underlie them. At the heart of the discussion is a memoir I have been writing for more than ten years.
My memoir is the jumping-off point for some reflections that may interest you if you are curious about other lives, or if you are writing, or thinking about writing, a memoir.
After writing essays, fiction, and non-fiction about my life for more than half a century, I still ponder the meaning of existence with the same openness and sense of mystery as when I was a child. You can help me by taking the time to comment about some of the things you read here. What we discover together may help others come to terms with some aspect of their lives. It may even encourage you to record some of your own memories.
| The memoir | The essays | The blog |
If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.
(Gospel of Thomas)
. . . God created man because He loves stories. (Elie Wiesel)