What is Camp Memoir?
Some people think that you have to live a lot of life in order to write about it. If you’re not famous or 101 years old, surely a memoir isn’t even possible.
Right?
Wrong! So very wrong.
A memoir is the intersection between your life and a very specific subject. It’s not your whole life from birth to the present moment. Instead, it’s those places where your life has intersected or been defined by the subject of your memoir. And the possibilities for what that subject might be are truly endless.
Writing is a lot more productive and less lonely when you’ve got a community to consult and to cheer you on. Whether you’re an old hand at memoir-writing or this is your first foray, take advantage of the resources and encouragement you’ll find at Camp to give your memoir all the love and help you could want to get from chapter one to “The End.”
Ready to join? Let us know and share your goal on the official Camp Memoir forum thread:
Share your goals for Camp Memoir!
Writing a Memoir: The Resource Library
By Lindsey Grant, author of Ready, Set, Memoir!
- Blog post: Try Writing a Memoir this Camp NaNoWriMo
- Memoir Writers Zoom Meet-Up recording
- Order her book, Ready, Set, Memoir!
Pep Talks by Memoirists
- Pep Talk from Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
- Pep Talk from Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
- Pep Talk from Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
- Pep Talk from Deb Olin Unferth, Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War
- Pep Talk from Francesca Lia Block, The Thorn Necklace: Healing through Writing and the Creative Process
- Pep Talk from Gene Luen Yang, Dragon Hoops
- Pep Talk from Katherine Paterson, Stories of my Life
- Pep Talk from Lynda Barry, What It Is
- Pep Talk from Neil Gaiman, The View From the Cheap Seats
- Pep Talk from Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch
- Pep Talk from Rachael Herron, Fast-Draft Your Memoir: Write Your Life Story in 45 hours
- Pep Talk from Tom Robbins, Tibetan Peach Pie
Write-Minded Podcast episodes with Memoirists
- Extra! Extra! Memoir Special, featuring Kiese Laymon and Jeannette Walls
- Personal Writing as a Method for Change, featuring Michelle Tea
- The Art (and Cost) of Reckoning, featuring Kiese Laymon
- Writing Raw (and in Pictures), featuring Mira Jacob
- Building Bridges Across Borders, featuring Luis Alberto Urrea
- The Book You Have to Write, featuring Piper Kerman
- Writing Without Judgment, featuring Jeannette Walls
Lindsey also recommends…
- Ted Talk: 3 Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage by Valarie Kaur
- Ted Talk: What Reading Slowly Taught Me about Writing by Jacqueline Woodson
- Ted Talk: Your Elusive Creative Genius by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Ted Talk: Confessions of a Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
- Mary Karr on Memoir
- Jesmyn Ward on PBS NewsHour
- Memoirist Retraces Her Journey from Survivalist Childhood to Cambridge Ph.D. with Tara Westover
- Mary Karr on Writing Memoirs: “No Doubt I’ve Gotten a Million Things Wrong”
- Punk Legend and Memoirist Viv Albertine on a Lifetime of Fighting the Patriarchy
Camp Memoir Flair
Camp Memoir – Badge – Right click to save image.
