100 Memoirs

Forrest Church’s voice rings in my head today. I finished his memoir last night, and  many of his themes are ones deeply embedded in my own life.  His 2008 book, Love & Death: My Journey Through the Valley of the Shadow, published by Beacon Press, focuses on the two big ideas of the title, especially [...]

The question comes to me from a blogger in Orange County, CA, who has a following in her own blog from ex-patriots all over the world.  What did you learn from your students in Haiti and in the Ivory Coast?
First of all, you need to know about the Goshen College Study-Service Term (SST).  This program, [...]

If you have not yet discovered the joy of the six-word memoir, here’s a past post that will fill you in–a lecture at Google by the authors of this book:
And if you missed this week’s long NPR segment on six-word memoirs on love and heartbreak, here’s the link that will take you there.
Below is a [...]

Today I finished leading the last 1.5-hour workshop in a series of four which took place at the Fetzer Institute. I think the title of this workshop–Timed Writing–may have scared away potential participants.   Sounds as jolly as retaking the SAT.  Despite the title, and despite the fact that four people on the list could not [...]

All during the long holiday season/vacation I took this year, I have been mulling over the connection between memoir and love.  Intuition tells me things that I can only later articulate.  This has happened to me all my life.
I love the story, whether it be true or apocryphal, that Einstein saw himself riding on a [...]

I was hoping that Newsweek would want to take this article for “My Turn,” but since the election is tomorrow and the time will have passed for the relevance of this essay, I offer it here to you.  What good is a blog if you can’t self-publish?
I love when old categories are rearranged as a [...]