Life Story Links: August 22, 2023

“It’s the human imperative, this piecing together of a life. And so, word by word, we lay down our tracks.”
—Dani Shapiro

Vintage poster with original artwork by Earl Kerkam produced some time between 1941-1943 by the Work Projects Administration; image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Digital Collection. The posters were designed to publicize exhibits, community activities, theatrical productions, and health and educational programs in seventeen states and the District of Columbia between 1936 to 1943.

Narrative framing

WRITING PAST PAIN
How do you share your story without hurting others? Megan February, a trauma-informed book coach, offers up eight important things to consider when writing about your life.

‘RE-STORYING INTERVENTION’
“The way that people tell their life story shapes how meaningful their lives feel.” New research finds that there are psychological benefits to reframing your life as a Hero’s Journey.

GREETINGS FROM…
Last week I shared the first in a two-part series about making memory books from family vacations—starting with the top three things to do during your travels to set you up for travelogue success later.

Things that last

ANCESTORS’ ARTIFACTS
“People don’t give native cultures much credit for their oral processes. When science goes in and verifies something we’ve been talking about for thousands of years, they’re shocked we’ve held onto that history.”

NOTE DISCOVERED IN WALL
“Her letter, a whisper from the past, became a symphony that harmonized generations, reminding us all that our words, even from the tender hands of a 14-year-old, can ripple across time to touch hearts we’ve never known.”

THINGS WE KEEP
“Sharing out loud with others keeps the memories alive, passes on the history, and enables people from all walks of life to build connections and consider their own part in our collective human story.” Meet Martie McNabb, the founder of Show & Tales story-sharing gatherings.

LOVE IN THE TIME OF ALZHEIMER’S
“I’m someone that has come here to help you remember who Augusto Góngora was,” Paulina Urrutia tells her husband in the Chilean documentery The Eternal Memory, called “loving, lyrical,” and “intimate” by reviewers. Read an interview with the film’s director here, and see a trailer below:

DIGITAL GHOSTS
“Estate lawyers have long encouraged clients to account for their digital property, but no one has come up with an emotional road map for the burden of inheriting these things.”

ANALOG TO DIGITAL
“Converting [family slides] into accessible digital media launched me on a journey back to my own childhood and the pasts of my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. That, in turn, is giving me a better understanding of how I became me.”

Writing…and reading…our lives

ON FIRST-PERSON WRITING
“And we all change. Stories need nothing else. All you have to add is paper.” For a droll take on the idea of writing about oneself, read this short piece by Rhik Samadder subtitled “What I learned teaching life-writing lessons.”

WRITING FROM AND INTO MEMORIES
“I would save almost everything, the Swedish death cleaners be damned, because these boxes were my inheritance, the stuff out of which my novels are made: old photographs and letters, unanswered questions, ticket stubs, report cards, the unremarkable detritus of ordinary human lives.”

‘A MEMOIR IN EIGHT ARGUMENTS’
“Although I’ve tried to own the fault entirely...I don’t think that take tells the whole story either.” In this excerpt from his new memoir, Chinese Prodigal, David Shih reflects on missing his father’s death.

‘FIRST AUTHORITATIVE BIOGRAPHY’ OF AUGUST WILSON
“If you were interviewing him, you would walk away thinking, ‘I’m the best interviewer in the world!’ Because all he did was talk and tell you these fabulous stories, with these great punchlines and lessons.”

REWRITING HER NARRATIVE
Listen in as successful ghostwriter Lara Love Hardin, author of the new memoir The Many Lives of Mama Love, talks about “her downward spiral from soccer mom to opioid addict to jailhouse shot-caller and her unlikely comeback”: