Episode Synopsis "An Introduction to Writing Memoir"

For twenty-five years, New York Times best-selling author Joyce Maynard has been leading workshops in the art and craft of memoir all over the U.S. and beyond.  Of all the places she’s taught, her favorite destination remains what has often been described as the most beautiful lake in the world: Lake Atitlan, Guatemala—where, for the last twenty years, she has been building a home and gardens that have been an oasis and inspiration to over three hundred writers who’ve travelled there every winter to work with her. This is where this series of podcasts is recorded and produced.   It is a series of intimate conversations with Joyce and some of her writing students that explore many journeys and global questions in memoir. We start by addressing questions such as, do we need to tell our memoir? What goes in it? What are we really looking for? And how do we arrive at the sense of freedom to tell our whole, true, story?

Listen "An Introduction to Writing Memoir"

More episodes of the podcast Telling Your Story with Joyce Maynard

• The Three Amigos - An Excerpt from Count The Ways
• The Writing Practice
• Establishing a Point of View
• Structure in Story-telling: The Road-Trip
• *Live* with Joyce at Lake Atitlan: On Dead Language
• How do we go from the Big Themes to the Smaller Stories?
• Exploring the Concept of the Container - with Betsy
• The Container Story
• The Point of Entry
• Moral Dilemma in Personal Narratives and Memoir: Is it our job to make the readers feel comfortable with our stories?
• The Stakes of Being An Honest Writer
• How to Write an Honest Story Without Hurting Others
• Identifying Your Obsessions
• Why Write?
• An Introduction to Writing Memoir