The Memoir Revolution

Tag: Grief

June 29, 2026

Beyond Kubler-Ross, memoir as a new language for grief

Grief/Loss, Memoirs

Grief, healing, Writing

Her enhanced ability to express her feelings pulled her out of the darkness and opened her toward other people. Like a spelunker lost in a cave, she sensed that by following the fresh air offered by letter-writing, she might find her way back to the surface.

Written by

Jerry Waxler
August 8, 2017

Tragedy and courage in memoirs

Grief/Loss

Carol Henderson, courage, essay, Grief, hope, Losing Malcolm, loss, memoir, terror

After all these years of reading memoirs, I’m deepening my understanding of the grieving subgenre, and seeing how the horror of loss leads to the wisdom of acceptance. In Losing Malcolm by Carol Henderson, the author almost goes mad. To compensate me for accompanying her to the depths, she lets me climb with her to…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
March 27, 2012

Interview with Susan Weidener About Memoir Workshops Pt 4

Author Interview, Susan Weidener

character flaw, Grief, honesty, interview, marriage, memoir, Susan Weidener, Writing

The women find themselves writing about things that had “gathered cobwebs” over the years. Once they put pen to paper and write it, the power of that memory or that time in their lives to hurt and cause anguish is taken away. Afterwards, they tell me they feel at peace with it. I’m not a…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
March 20, 2012

Interview with Susan Weidener About Writing Her Memoir Pt 3

Author Interview, Susan Weidener

character flaw, Grief, honesty, interview, marriage, memoir, Susan Weidener, Writing

I was intrigued by self-publishing. It is very exciting. You own the copyright to your work; royalties are a lot higher than through a traditional publisher because you take the risk. As a deadline-oriented person, I felt it was crucial to know the book would be published and not get stuffed in a drawer. I…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
March 13, 2012

Interview with Susan Weidener About Writing Her Memoir Pt 2

Author Interview, Susan Weidener

character flaw, Grief, honesty, interview, marriage, memoir, Susan Weidener, Writing

I wrote at least eight drafts before I was satisfied with the final version. I gave a copy of the completed manuscript to a former colleague from The Philadelphia Inquirer and to a family therapist. Both provided additional editing and copy editing. Of course, I edit manuscripts myself, but there is no way you can…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
March 6, 2012

Interview with Memoir Author Susan Weidener About Honesty

Author Interview, Susan Weidener

character flaw, Grief, honesty, interview, marriage, memoir, Susan Weidener, Writing

By accepting my flaws, I found a place of healing. Why wasn’t I kinder to him at the end of his life? That question haunted me for years. As I wrote my memoir, I began to see how almost anyone would have reacted much like I did when confronting the loss of their dreams, the…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
June 13, 2011

Make sense of loss: Grieving in Memoirs

Grief/Loss

death, Grief, loss, memoir, mourning, seeking

To turn this sequence into a continuous narrative, we look for lessons from other authors who have done the same thing. Here are several examples of memoirs that describe the journey of grief. Each book demonstrates how to collect the upheavals of life into the container of a story.

Written by

Jerry Waxler
May 19, 2011

Revealing Death and Other Courageous Acts of Life

Family, Grief/Loss, Writing Workshop

Addiction, Creative Nonfiction, death, Grief, memoir, Montgomery county community college, Philadelphia Writers Conference, professor, umass, Waxler, workshop

Then it was my job to turn the audience’s attention back to their own goals. I realized there wasn’t enough time to conduct a real workshop, but in the small amount of time available, I wanted to convince everyone that the problems of writing a memoir are solvable. “When you look back through your memories,…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
June 15, 2010

Courage to Write, Passion to Read

Book Review, Family, Grief/Loss

bibliophile, Book Review, courage, Grief, healing, Literature, mourning

Before I even purchased the book, I knew from the blurb that the author was an English Literature professor at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. I knew that “Courage to Walk,” was about the crippling and potentially deadly illness of a second son, and I knew about the death of Robert and Linda’s oldest…

Written by

Jerry Waxler
June 10, 2010

Interview about crossing from academic to popular writing

Author Interview

academic, father, Grief, interview, Literature, memoir, popular, son, Writing

Robert: Some of my writing has been what could be called ” academic” in this context. Especially academic journal articles, etc. But I have always liked to think of myself as a “public” person in this regard. Much of my work has been out in the community, trying to convince people that reading and discussing…

Written by

Jerry Waxler