F287. Secrets, Shame, and Memoir: Women Writers on What It Takes to Tell the Truth about Our Lives

Room M100 H&I, Mezzanine Level
Friday, April 10, 2015
4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

 

Memoir requires that a writer be as honest as possible. But this can be especially difficult for women, who carry a legacy of being belittled, blamed, and not believed. Because we have been taught that telling our truths is shameful and risky, we've been tempted to censor ourselves, holding back from telling the stories that most need to be told. Hear how the writers on this panel found the courage to write openly and powerfully about their lives, despite all.


Participants

Moderator:

Janice Gary is the author of Short Leash: A Memoir of Dog Walking and Deliverance, winner of two Nautilus Silver Awards and a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. She teaches creative writing and memoir at Anne Arundel College and is a fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Lisa D. Chavez has published two books of poetry, Destruction Bay and In An Angry Season, and has had essays included in several anthologies, including The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, and An Angle of Vision: Women Writers on Their Poor and Working Class Roots.

Rosemary Daniell is the award-winning author of eight books of poetry and prose, including her revolutionary memoirs, Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South and Sleeping with Soldiers. Her memoir in progress is My Anarchist Heart. She is the founder of Zona Rosa Writing Workshops.

Sonja Livingston’s first book, Ghostbread, won the AWP Award for Nonfiction. An essay collection, Queen of the Fall, is new in 2015. Sonja's work has won honors from the Deming Fund, Iowa Review, Arts & Letters, and NYFA, and appears in journals such as AGNI, Seneca Review, Brevity, and Blackbird.

Meredith Hall is the author of the best-selling memoir, Without A Map. Listed on Flavorwire's "17 Women to Read," Hall has been awarded an AROHO award, a Pushcart, and others. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Kenyon Review, and others. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of New Hampshire.

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