The Memoir Revolution

Tag: child abuse

August 31, 2009

More Q&A with Sue William Silverman on confessions, memoirs, and the art of writing

Author Interview, Courage to Write, Heal from Abuse, Trauma, Women

author, child abuse, confession, craft, How-to, interview, memoir, memoir writer, taboo, Writing

For me, the best way to recollect the details of past events is to submerge myself in sensory imagery. For example, say I want to write about a birthday party in sixth grade. Maybe I remember some broad brushstrokes of the party but can’t recall as many details as I’d like. In order to do…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
August 26, 2009

Author Sue William Silverman Talks About Confessions, Memoirs, and the Craft of Writing

Author Interview, Heal from Abuse, Trauma

author, child abuse, confession, memoir writer, taboo, Writing

Silverman is a careful thinker, picking apart the process of memoir writing, intensely studying each part, and then not merely putting them back together but, showing the reader how to do it, too. I am impressed by the generosity with which she offers advice, insight, and enthusiasm. I love her treatment of metaphor, her thoughts…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
August 21, 2009

Fearlessly Confessing the Dark Side of Memory in this Memoir of Sexual Abuse

Book Review, Courage to Write, Heal from Abuse

Book Review, child abuse, courage, essay, Family, healing, sexual abuse, Trauma

Some dark memories are so compelling they draw you in and frighten or upset you. If you try to seal them back in their crypt, they remain squirming in the dark. Or you can face them fearlessly, and stay with them until you can shape them into a story. By using your words to describe…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
October 7, 2008

Mothers and Daughters Don’t Always Mix

Book Review, Heal from Abuse, Service

Abandonment, child abuse, Great Plains, memoir, Midwest, secrets, shame

This book demonstrates the power of persistence. By crafting the story until she got it right, Linda Joy Myers discovered amidst the wreckage of that little girl’s childhood an intact human being, complete with courage, confidence, and dreams. Storytelling transformed her heartbreaking childhood into one stage in a much longer saga. Her suffering and then…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
March 13, 2008

Memoir author talks about writing, sharing, and healing

Author Interview, Heal from Abuse

Author Interview, child abuse, courage, cycling, embarrassment, healing, memoir

Bill Strickland’s memoir, “Ten Points,” weaves together three things: a promise he made to his daughter, a summer of cycling to fulfill that promise, and his insights into the wounds of his own childhood. To learn more about his experience of digging so deeply into his past and then sharing it with the public, I…

Written by

Jerry Waxler

Tag: child abuse

More Q&A with Sue William Silverman on confessions, memoirs, and the art of writing

Author Sue William Silverman Talks About Confessions, Memoirs, and the Craft of Writing

Fearlessly Confessing the Dark Side of Memory in this Memoir of Sexual Abuse

Mothers and Daughters Don’t Always Mix

Memoir author talks about writing, sharing, and healing