Memories Matter
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Want to use your life story to inform your fiction?
This new book by Ruta Sepetys, You: The Story, is a great tool for those who want to use their own life experiences to inform their fiction writing.
Life (and life writing) lessons from a WSJ obituary writer
Why leave your legacy in the hands of someone else? Try your hand at writing your own obituary with these tips—it just may be the start of your mini memoir.
Two great resources to help you write an ethical will
Ethical wills—also called legacy letters—are great ways to pass on values and life lessons to your descendants. These two books will help you create your own.
“To Write the Past”: A supportive companion for thoughtful memoirists
This small yet dense self-published book comprises nine essays in which writer Sara Mansfield Taber aims to answer “the questions that plague the memoirist.”
Most anticipated memoir & craft books of 2022
Personal historian Dawn Roode of Modern Heirloom Books lists her most anticipated books of 2022 for fans of memoir and the craft of writing. Mark your faves!
Three writers use vignettes to craft moving memoirs
Memoirs by Sarah Manguso, Beth Ann Fennelly, and Beth Kephart each weave together short narratives to create evocative, textured self-portraits of the writers.
Book recommendation: “Life Is in the Transitions,” by Bruce Feiler
Bruce Feiler's latest book, Life Is in the Transitions, offers up a helpful toolkit for dealing with life's curveballs through a lens of storytelling.
The vignette: What to read to be inspired
Memoir reading suggestions to inspire your own vignette-style life story writing, from Annie Dillard and Kelly Corrigan to Robert Fulghum and Sandra Cisneros.
Dawn Roode’s curated roundup for the week of Sept. 23, 2026, is overflowing with recent reads on memoir, life story writing, and family history preservation.