In response to editor Maran’s probing questions, what emerges is a chorus of diverse voices and varied motivations, perspectives, and experiences—an invaluable resource for readers and writers alike. Maran pens a brief introduction to each memoirist, highlighting their literary achievements and personal backgrounds; contributors highlight key tips for aspiring memoirists.

Among the hot-button topics explored in WHY WE WRITE ABOUT OURSELVES:

Truth and Memory
SUE MONK KIDD: I don’t see [memoir] as a confessional booth where anything goes. It’s not a pot of soup where you just throw anything in because you think it will spice it up. A memoir deserves discretion. (p. 124)
DANI SHAPIRO: The idea of truth in memoir is absurd. Memory is utterly mutable, changeable, and constantly in motion. You can’t fact-check memory. (p. 171)
ISHMAEL BEAH: When certain people in the media accused me of making up parts of my story and exaggerating the length of my time as a solider, it was frustrating and annoying to argue with them about it…I stand fully by what I wrote. (p. 7)

Facing Criticism
EDWIDGE DANTICAT: When it’s fiction, it’s easier to accept public criticism. But when it’s memoir, they’re not talking about just a book. They’re talking about your life. (p. 66)
AYELET WALDMAN: That first crazy essay about loving [my husband] more than my kids resulted in so much publicity, so much hate mail, and so many angry women confronting me on the set of Oprah… but it started a conversation that had a part in changing how we talk about motherhood.
ANNE LAMOTT: I run everything I’m writing past everybody I’m writing about. I have a really clear sense of what’s a boundary violation and what’s not. (p. 135)

Race
JAMES MCBRIDE: The industry is accustomed to black writers writing about pain and struggle. I can think of a half-dozen white writers who write about the same things and [were] never marginalized. (p. 163)
JESMYN WARD: [In] this country, unfortunately, [in] the dialogue about black people…there’s no awareness of the larger systemic pressures that bear down on us that make it easier for the sort of reality I write about to exist. …. (p. 240)

Advice to aspiring memoirists
DARIN STRAUSS: Write the first draft of your memoir in third person, not first. That’ll make it easier for you to be tough on yourself, as you should be. (p. 203)

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About the Author
Meredith Maran, a passionate reader and writer of memoirs, is the author of thirteen nonfiction books and the acclaimed 2012 novel, A Theory Of Small Earthquakes. Meredith also writes book reviews, essays, and features for newspapers and magazines including People, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, Salon.com, and More. A member of the National Book Critics Circle, Meredith lives in a restored historic bungalow in Los Angeles. Her next memoir, about starting over in Los Angeles, will be out from Blue Rider Press in 2017.

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