RSSCategory: Women Writing Memoirs

How Courageous Are You?

How Courageous Are You?

Since publishing my own story a year ago, and gathering the stories of  women who wished to share their truths in a collaborative anthology, I have been reminded just how difficult it can be to put our truths out into the world. Sharing our stories makes us vulnerable to criticism and judgment. Yet our life […]

November 5, 2014 | By | 12 Replies More
Memoir Competition Mslexia

Memoir Competition Mslexia

There are some amazing competitions for women writers! We didn’t want you to miss this one! Mslexia Women’s Memoir Competition is for full-length memoirs from unpublished memoirists. The only competition of its type in the UK, Mslexia is looking for memoirs of at least 50,000 words of prose that narrate actual events in the writer’s […]

In Defense of True Stories

In Defense of True Stories

I know, I know, agents are not interested in memoir, yet they openly admit they don’t know what sells. So why do we listen to them? It’s crazy because “Based on a True Story” sells. True stories are Hollywood’s darlings, and when we settle into our seats getting ready to watch a film and the […]

June 11, 2014 | By | 16 Replies More
Reviewing Memoirs: Do You Cross the Line?

Reviewing Memoirs: Do You Cross the Line?

“Stick to the writing!” In workshops as we respond to a memoir piece someone has just read, I remind myself and others that there’s a dangerous line we cross when we don’t stick to the writing. Hearing a personal story written candidly, spontaneously, with no attempts at camouflage, it’s easy to respond with empathy, “oh, you […]

May 30, 2014 | By | 27 Replies More
The #IAmSubject Project

The #IAmSubject Project

We received over seventy submissions for the #iamsubject project.   The #iamsubject project is follow-up project to Diane DeBella’s memoir, I Am Subject, and is about learning from the lives of women writers so we can change the course of our lives. Diane’s memoir was made available at $2.99 through her sponsorship period to make it more affordable to share decades of […]

I Am Subject: We Write What We Need to Learn

I Am Subject: We Write What We Need to Learn

Meet US Author Diane DeBella. She’s is our Site Sponsor through early June 2014. Her book “I Am Subject” is highly relevant to each of us as women, and as women writers. It is about being subject of our own lives, not objects, not adjuncts to the lives of others. Stay a while. Linger here and […]

April 26, 2014 | By | 23 Replies More
An American Bride in Kabul by Phyllis Chesler

An American Bride in Kabul by Phyllis Chesler

An American Bride in Kabul by Phyllis Chesler   We’re excited to bring you another book – this one by the noted feminist and author of Women and Madness, Phyllis Chesler.  “The dramatic, riveting, and timely tale of how one woman’s harrowing ordeal in a harem in Afghanistan shaped her into a modern feminist leader […]

November 20, 2013 | By | 8 Replies More
How Can I Get My Memoir Published

How Can I Get My Memoir Published

After you have toiled and tinkered and revised for ages, and you feel you finally have a strong manuscript, you begin to wonder how on earth to get your book into print. It goes without saying that that is a tough world, and even really top literary manuscripts fail to find a New York publisher. […]

October 25, 2013 | By | 11 Replies More
My Big Fake Immigrant Memoir

My Big Fake Immigrant Memoir

Let’s face it, the American immigration story has been done to death. It’s the “been-there-wrote-that” tale. So would someone please tell why I’m sitting here writing a book-length memoir about leaving my native Ireland, at age 24, to come alone to live in America? While I’m penning my woman’s immigrant story, the very same story is being played […]

May 21, 2013 | By | 6 Replies More
Losing the Artist, Saving Her Art (Part 2)

Losing the Artist, Saving Her Art (Part 2)

Continued from Losing the Artist, Saving her Art Part 1. Eugenia’s physicians finally allowed her to travel with considerable misgivings, as she was 84 and had a metallic heart valve. Transatlantic travel is stressful one way or the other, but there was no holding her back. She wanted to experience the place that her daughter had loved […]

November 23, 2012 | By | 3 Replies More