I took a memoir writing class at the University of Kentucky. I wish we had Beth Kephart's book, Handling the Truth.
One of the class discussions at the life writing class I took was how people react to memoir. How they react to seeing themselves portrayed in memoir?
Often their recollection is different, which is natural, but sometimes the people that populate your memoir feel affronted.
Kephart deals with this early on, "Its obvious, isn't it? Memoir making is a hazardous business. People are involved. Their feelings. Their reputations. Their relationships to you..."
If you're showing PBS's Decoding the Weather at your public library, keep this list of eco-themed books in mind.
These "climate change" themed books would make excellent book discussion or common reads:
Bacigalupi, Paolo. The Water Knife.
Jemison, N.K. The Fifth Season.
Mandel, Emily. Station Eleven.
Miller, Sam. Blackfish City.
Roberts, Nora. Year One.
Wright, Alexis. The Swan Book.
“Writers don't write from experience, although many are
hesitant to admit that they don't. ...If you wrote from
experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems.
Writers write from empathy.”
Nikki Giovanni.
