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Life Story Links: December 13, 2022
We've got a wealth of thought-provoking stories about memory-keeping, family history preservation, and memoir in this final curated reading list of 2022.
“One is always at home in one’s past.”
—Vladimir Nabokov
Joyeux Noël! Vintage postcard of children with baby animals—illustration by Pauli Ebner, published by Max Munk—courtesy of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
The unexpected power of obituary writing
OVERLOOKED NO MORE
A teacher shares how he used a New York Times obituary series to show students that “history is a kind of kaleidoscope, made up of many people’s stories.”
AN EXERCISE IN LIVING
“Unlike writing an obituary for someone else, writing your own obituary gives you a chance to audit your own life. It’s helped me take note of what I want more of—and less of—in my day-to-day life.”
What to watch & what to read next
TEENAGERS TELL STORIES
I don’t know what I am more bolstered by—the power and grace of these winning 100-word personal narratives by teens, or that more than 12,000 (!!) of them wrote and submitted their mini memoir entries.
CHANGE AGENTS
From Doris Lessing’s frank memoirs of social change to less famous campaigners in decisive struggles, Sheila Rowbotham’s “top 10 dissenting life stories.”
ANIMATING ARCHIVES WITH RAW EMOTION
“In a short documentary about a troubled family relationship, Diana Cam Van Nguyen uses cuts, folds, and mixed media to bring old letters to life.” This 12-minute autobiographical, poetic film is wonderfully worth your time.
SHAPING HER HISTORY
“Understanding where we are from—who we are—is a task of nuance and nuisance,” Mary-Alice Daniel writes in this excerpt from her “memoir across three continents.”
TENDER TRIBUTE
Robert Downey Jr. turned the camera on his father, Robert Downey Sr., from 2019 until Sr.’s death in mid-2021 of complications from Parkinson’s disease. The black-and-white film is “a lively look” at the cult filmmaker. See a preview here:
Personal histories, written
END-OF-YEAR REFLECTIONS
“There's no better way to celebrate the rich, full life you've lived so far—and the big, bright future ahead—than telling your story.” Here, a few ideas from the Oprah team to get you started.
A FOCUS ON MEMORIES
I might not have time for the full-fledged memoir I want to write, but I can make time every day for this easy and significant journal exercise—and so can you: the low-pressure, high-yield memory-keeping exercise I’ve recently begun.
“WHERE I’M FROM”
“I love hearing people’s stories. But when you meet someone casually you can’t say, ‘Hi, nice to meet you. What was your childhood like?’ I liked the idea of having a container that could do this, one that we could share.” Alyson Shelton in conversation on story, connection, and an approachable writing prompt.
FOR THE FAMILY CHARTER
Charlie Carr, a family office advisor, shares his list of 10 things to leave your kids besides money—including some “items [that] are...aspirational—it’s not just who we are today, but who we want to be.”
Pictures of the past
FACES FROM THE ARCHIVES
“Because of the Holocaust, many of us have been robbed of the opportunity to see images of families that were in many cases wiped out.” Thanks to one man’s vision, the Numbers to Names organization is changing that.
THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER
This photo exhibition that captures the ephemeral idea of home also explores the suggestion that family photos cam be akin to propaganda.
PHYSICAL HISTORY, ERASED
Her grandmother “knew that everything existed in a context, and she was determined to lay claim to her own story—of how the material things that surrounded her helped to soothe, nourish, and define her sense of family legacy, identity, and place in the world.”
“A LIFE, $12”
He bought a box of 8mm films in an antique store when he was a student, then squirreled them away. Two years later, he writes, “ I bought an old projector, loaded up that first reel, and started watching.” A journey of discovery ensued.
THINGS THAT MATTER
Matt Paxton’s tradition of telling stories prompted by Christmas ornaments helps keep his family history alive in a meaningful and fun way for his seven children. Listen in as he is a featured speaker in a recent episode of Martie McNabb’s Show & Tale podcast.
...and a few more links
Short takes
Life Story Links: November 29, 2022
This week’s curated roundup includes so many good reads about story preservation—from planning your memoir to turning memory into art—plus, objects of affection.
“Most [people] don’t even know how impressive they are until they tell their stories to others. ‘By God, I matter!’ one woman exclaimed.”
—James E. Birren and Linda Feldman
This vintage photograph of a London street scene, taken between 1930-1950, was originally part of a scrapbook in the American Theatre Wing. Photo courtesy the Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
The stuff of memory
PRECIOUS OBJECTS
From a chipped crystal decanter that reminds the storyteller of a bold 1911 journey to a pair of shoes worn by another narrator’s family member when fleeing the Nazis—objects hold stories.
VOICES FROM THE PAST
Her father recorded soundbites of their family life on vinyl records (some 200 of them!). Now nearing 80, Ms. Kelly has inherited these circular time capsules of domestic life, with their scratchy resurrections of the past.
’TIS THE SEASON FOR NOSTALGIA
The holidays, for many, are a time of family togetherness, tradition, and memory-making. Why not let the gifts we give to our loved ones reflect those values? My round-up of unique gifts for memory-keepers and family historians.
Story preservation planning
YOUR MEMOIR: A PLAN
“Any and every item you have penciled in on your bucket list deserves not just a little hopeful dreaming every now and then, but a plan—a way to make your future dreams your present reality!” Here, a plan to get your memoir off your bucket list and into the world.
SAFEGUARDING FAMILY STORIES
“Preserving family stories is a passion of mine, but it can often become overwhelming. There just doesn’t seem to be a clear beginning, and the ending often seems far, far away.” Lisa Duncan of Heirloom Explorer has gathered resources and her favorite Instagram accounts to inspire your own memory-keeping.
BRIDGING GENERATIONS
“When my mother died in 2014, I realized how much I didn’t know about her life. I never asked the questions that haunt me now—questions about what interactions she had, what it was like to live in her time in the places she did.” Read an excerpt from Elizabeth Keating’s new book, The Essential Questions.
Turning memory into art
IN PICTURES
Why did Steve Martin decide to turn his favorite memories as an actor into a memoir illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss? Because “an anecdote in cartoon form is very succinct. You don't have to set the scene….You could just do the gist of the story.”
A PERPETUAL MEMOIRIST, RECOGNIZED
Many authors write about their lives. Over nearly fifty years, Annie Ernaux, the 2022 Nobel laureate for literature, has discovered new ways to do it.
‘TRAVEL GUIDE’ TO FAMILY’S UNSPOKEN PAST
Composer Michael Gordon’s new musical work reflects on his father’s flight from Poland in 1939 and “about what [his family] took with them, and what they didn’t; about the complications of piecing origins together amid tales unheard and traumas untold.”
CONJURING A LOVED ONE THROUGH MEMORY
“As time passes and stories pile up, it can become difficult to distinguish between original memories and those borrowed from family lore or photographs…. The animation in [the short film] The Garbage Man revels in this ambiguity, bringing together the past and the present…and sitting them all down over lunch.”
PROFILE TO EMULATE
This beautiful piece about an author I love, Octavia Butler—“the girl who grew up in Pasadena, took the bus, loved her mom and grandmother, and wrote herself into the world”—also includes links to understanding her via “her most misunderstood work; her writing style; and her famous journal entry.”
...and a few more links
“12 Months to a Full Memoir or Essay Collection:” a generative workshop with Chloe Caldwell: applications due in December
Consumer Reports: Digitizing family memories ahead of the holidays
A curated collection of preservation materials for all your family history belongings, from Gaylord Archival
“Memory and grief are at the heart of this year’s best cinema”
What meaning is held by the mysterious objects on Van Gogh’s kitchen table?
Short takes
Life Story Links: November 15, 2022
On tap this week: A host of memoir-ish media recommendations, plenty about preserving legacies of those who have come before us, and tips for writing our lives.
“So let us leave words for those we love in order that we may journey with them long after we are gone, and let it not take imminent death for us to find those words and craft a more meaningful legacy.”
—Rabbi Steve Leder
Vintage promotional photo for Automat coffee, courtesy of the Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Memoir-ish media
FAMOUS DIRECTOR’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FILM
“I started thinking, what’s the one story I haven’t told that I’d be really mad at myself if I don’t? It was always the same answer every time: the story of my formative years growing up between 7 and 18.” Steven Spielberg gets personal.
WALKING WITH GHOSTS
“It’s not even so much about my life. I put my life out there so you can think about yours.” Gabriel Byrne on the stage adaptation of his acclaimed 2020 memoir, Walking With Ghosts.
ACCUMULATED MEMORY
“Memory permits us all to have an authentic relationship to our national narrative. These discrete stories and moments, anecdotes and memories, become the building blocks of our collective experience alongside our individual identities.” Ken Burns on the intersection of individual intimacy and national narrative.
AN UNDOCUMENTED CHILDHOOD
“My biggest fear is that with my parents will die the last of my ties to my familial roots. And in response to that fear, to preempt the feelings that might emerge, I am tempted give up and let those ties fade now.” Read a memoir excerpt from Qian Julie Wang.
COMPLICATED FAMILY HISTORY
When Rachel Knight started looking into her family’s genealogy, she came across a history her grandmother had typed years before, and a shocking discovery. She and her brother share this part of their family legacy in Invented Before You Were Born, previewed here:
Lasting legacies
‘HERE AFTER” AI
Digital clones of the people we love could forever change how we grieve. Are we ready for such technology that lets us “speak” to our dead relatives?
IN LOVING MEMORY
Last week I wrote about how I’ve gotten to know more than 50 people I’ve never met this year by editing tributes in their honor—and why this is a worthy endeavor.
GLOBAL ACCESS TO TESTIMONIES
USC Shoah Foundation has completely overhauled its Visual History Archive.“The result is an incredible new resource that humanizes testimony in a way that has never before been possible.”
HER PERSONAL UNDERTAKING
New York teen author Suzette Sheft says, “My father’s death forced me to understand the importance of preserving the stories of our loved ones before it is too late. At 13, I learned that I could not let my family’s stories fade away, no matter the pain that comes with remembering.”
Writing our lives
OVERCOMING STORY-INERTIA
“It takes courage and commitment to begin and maintain the process of creating a written narrative of the past,” New Hampshire–based personal historian Peggy Rosen writes in this piece offering approaches from Guided Autobiography.
WRITING ABOUT THE HARD STUFF
“I always find that if you are hesitant to share something difficult but feel a nudge to do so, you should go for it. It’s probably because you need to share to help yourself or someone else,” writes Rachel Trotter of Evalogue Life.
THROUGH LIVES, THROUGH DEATHS
“I didn’t believe I was a writer yet, but I made a note of it,” Sorayya Khan says of learning her father had 10 years to live. “Writing renders our world and ourselves. It has saved me more than once.”
...and a few more links
How Taylor Swift and Joe Brainard led one writer on an exploration of writing in the present tense
The author of Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret recalls the confusion and joy around a female rite of passage.
A wonderful way to honor veterans’ stories in Ontario
Short takes
Life Story Links: November 1, 2022
This week's curated roundup includes Dawn’s book and film picks, meditations on memoir, and more recent articles of interest to personal and family historians.
“Remembering is a serious business. It demands attention. For a journey into the past, you have to pick your moment.”
—Charles Fernyhough
Vintage photo of a kids’ football team, October 1947, by Wallace Kirkland for LIFE magazine; © Time.
Memoir minutia
THOSE STORIES YOU’VE TUCKED AWAY
“For a long time, I used to say that I ran away from memoir by writing fiction. I don’t believe that anymore. I think if anything, my fiction writing helped lead me to my heart, to the stories I really wanted to write, to my essays and memoir.” Vanessa Mártir on writing the ghosts that haunt.
THE UNASSAILABILITY OF MEMORY
“Memory is a pinball in a machine — it messily ricochets around between image, idea, fragments of scenes, stories you’ve heard.” Mary Karr on navigating memory while writing memoir.
Life. legacies, POV
WHO GETS THE LAST WORD?
“It’s clear to those who have contributed material that the archive is about safeguarding Mr. Jobs’s legacy. It’s a goal that many of them support.” But some historians worry: Is it more tribute than archive?
OUTLIVING HIS FATHER
“At some point in my early twenties, it occurred to me that although he was no longer here, with me, my father’s life was like a map unfurling beneath mine.” Read an excerpt from Thomas Beller’s new book.
THE JOURNAL DILEMMA
“Like the journal itself, the question of what to do with them is deeply personal—and well worth contemplating.” Suleika Jaouad on making a plan for what becomes of your private writings, and who may be impacted by your choice.
ECHOES ACROSS TIME
When she was growing up, Massachusetts–based personal historian Marjorie Turner Hollman keenly felt the absence of her paternal grandfather. A trip to the Grand Canyon as an adult connected her to “Grampy” in surprising ways.
Media recommendations for personal history fans
BOOKS OF DELIGHT
There are all kinds of autobiographical writing, but oh how I love Ross Gay’s meandering yet distinct essays that, like the titles of his books promise, anticipate and deliver joy. His latest, Inciting Joy, came out October 25.
INTROSPECTIVE ACTOR & PHILANTHROPIST
“With all other people, some things were possible, but not everything. For us, the promise of everything was there from the beginning,” Paul Newman says of Joanne Woodward in this brief excerpt from his new memoir.
WITNESS
Last week I reviewed “Survivors: Faces of the Holocaust,” an exhibition showcasing 75 large-scale portraits taken by photographer Martin Schoeller to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz in 2020.
‘FROM WHERE THEY STOOD’
A handful of prisoners in WWII camps risked their lives to take clandestine photographs and document the hell the Nazis were hiding from the world. The film From Where They Stood attempts to unearth the circumstances and the stories behind their photographs:
...and a few more links
Seeking advice: “Is it okay that my husband keeps mementos of his former love?”
Precious memories: 8 refugees share the things they brought to remind them of home.
“Dark Terrorism: an Unexpected Prisoner of War, Part 1” is a lovely example of compelling family history writing.
Research shows positive and negative memories are stored in different parts of the brain, and what this means for memory manipulation.
How explosive will Prince Harry’s memoir, due in January, be?
10 physician memoirs that offer inspiring accounts of life in medicine
Eliza Dumais cooks through the journals of Sylvia Plath, “a radical academic with a bend towards baking banana bread.”
Short takes
Life Story Links: October 18, 2022
This week’s curated roundup has thoughtful pieces about experimenting with form in your life writing, as well as memoir and film recs and family history tips.
“Even before we consciously know what a story is, we are gathering material for the self-defining story we will someday compose.”
—Dan P. McAdams, Ph.D.
Vintage photo of children in costume on Halloween in New York City, taken between 1940-1979 by Morris Huberland, courtesy of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Autobiographical media to check out
HOLD THE ONIONS
“Food is home. And if you talk about it the smell comes to you and home comes back,” said Tova Friedman, an 84-year-old survivor of Auschwitz whose recipes are included in Honey Cake and Latkes: Recipes from the Old World by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivors.
“THE STORIES WE TELL”
“At some point, I realized I was writing a story—my story. The bits and pieces that shape who I am. It was messy and winding and beautiful, and graciously revealed about a million wonders. Some of it broke my heart—and some of it pieced it back together.” Joanna Gaines is releasing her first solo memoir in November.
“I WANTED TO BOTTLE HIM UP”
Filmmaker Oni Timoner thought she was creating a home movie…until it became the most important story of her life. This film, Last Flight Home, despite this mixed review, is at the top of my must-see list (it’s now playing in theaters):
Writing outside the box
GENRE BENDING
“If you want to write a memoir without writing a memoir, go ahead and call it something else. Let other people argue about it. Arguing with yourself or the dead will get you nowhere,” Elizabeth McCracken writes in her new fictionalized memoir.
CONTAINERS FOR OUR STORIES
“Experimenting with storytelling forms can introduce you to compelling, layered ways of telling your stories,” Vanessa Mártir writes in this introduction to three new, affordable virtual “Writing Our Lives” classes.
Family history storytelling
HOW TO PRESERVE YOUR FAMILY ARCHIVE
“Everyone started realizing how precious these memories are and, if they don’t pass them down, we will lose them.... I started asking questions during our monthly family Zoom calls and it opened Pandora’s box.”
NEARLY ‘ERASED BY HISTORY’
“Connecting descendants to their ancestors involves detective work: collecting oral histories from family members and local elders; tracking death certificates; studying property maps and deeds; and combing spotty and unforgiving records.” African Americans search for lost graves.
CUSTODIANS OF MEMORY
Last week I shared three ways to leave a personal legacy that has a positive impact on our loved ones; I view this as both a responsibility we bear and a gift we can give.
First person reads worth your time
FRIDAYS AT THE BEAUTY PARLOR
This personal essay about her mother’s salon routine—“a “weekly commitment to beauty,...a sacred form of worship”—is an example that the best autobiographical writing often comes at things from a surprising angle.
ON HIS CHILDHOOD MIGRATION
“From up the river, we see two boats approaching. They’re identical to ours: no canopy, filled with people, and big red gasoline barrels near the back.” Read an excerpt from the recently released Solito by Javier Zamora.
...and a few more links
Registration for RootsTech 2023—both the in-person and virtual events—is open now.
A decade after Hurricane Sandy, volunteer historians restore a Queens, New York, neighborhood's lost memories.
This month from the Biographers Guild of Greater New York: Writing your memoir: DIY vs. hiring an expert
Short takes
Life Story Links: October 4, 2022
Curated just for you: Recent stories on the craft of life writing, memories held in objects, legacy building, new memoir, and honoring loved ones after death.
“Clearly, the most joyous outcome of the life review process is that you really do treat your past as history, you appreciate your triumphs, and the misery becomes part of the context of your life, not the focus.”
—Linda Feldman
Vintage postcard depicting the “Temple de Thésée, Athènes,” courtesy of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Aftermath
RELEASE
“Nowhere in the five boroughs was distant enough: If the subway could get me there, I might wake one night from an Ambien-induced sleep to find myself stabbing Mom repeatedly.” Rachel Cline’s naked essay in Dorothy Parker’s Ashes.
ABUELA’S STORIES
“When I’m writing, I close my eyes and my grandmother’s voice comes to me: ‘Each one of us is responsible for keeping history alive.’ ” Armando Lucas Correa’s grandmother’s stories about Cuba inspired him to write.
LOSS, GRIEF, LEGACY
While packing up the apartment of his late mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, journalist Anderson Cooper begins recording his experiences. In the resulting podcast, he explores how we find meaning in the things our loved ones leave behind, how we navigate grief, and how to live on after loss—with laughter, and with love. Here’s a preview:“
Words last: A kind of legacy
“AS LONG AS YOU READ US, WE’RE NOT DEAD”
As author Terry Pratchett’s dementia became prohibitive, his assistant’s role grew to amanuensis, to “keeper of the anecdotes,” and he finished the biographical book that Pratchett had begun, A Life With Footnotes.
“WOMAN WITHOUT SHAME”
“I wanted to understand my father, a man who served in the Second World War without understanding or speaking English. If you don’t write a story like that down, it’ll be like it never happened. He doesn’t have Ken Burns trying to tell his story.” Sandra Cisneros, who calls Studs Terkel her ‘literary ancestor,’ in conversation.
LETTING THE STORY MARINATE
“For [my new memoir], Beautiful Country, I spent three years (and one might say, most of my life) thinking about the book, researching through my diary and retracing my steps, and processing how I wanted to write it.”
The stuff of memories
SARTORIAL STORIES
“Most of the clothes I’ve saved in my closet cannot be recycled physically; they hang there as aide-mémoire to a life.” Julia Reed on the memories woven into well-worn clothes.
THE TRAPPER KEEPER GENERATION
“When I was interviewing people about their school supplies, I was really asking how they felt about themselves during their vulnerable adolescence.” An iconic binder elicits strong memories and visceral responses for these writers.
UNIVERSITY ARCHIVE
“Lucky for us, Hemingway was a pack rat. He saved everything from bullfight tickets and bar bills to a list of rejected story titles written on a piece of cardboard.” A new collection at Penn State provides insight into the author’s writing process and his personal life from childhood onward.
Crafting our stories
WRITE YOUR LIFE
Last week I shared an iterative life writing prompt that gets your pen moving and delivers a trove of future ideas for your memoir. Bonus: It’s a fun one!
“EVERYONE’S GOT A STORY IN THEM”
“Many of us regret not asking our parents and grandparents more about their lives while we had the chance, but I’ve yet to come across anyone who has regretted writing their story.” The Guardian reports on a boom in the personal history industry.
AN INTENTIONAL JOURNEY
“Writing about myself and reading what I wrote to strangers changed me. Or, did it reveal me?” Barbara McCarthy on how taking a guided autobiography course was a significant turning point in her life.
UNEXPECTED TEACHERS
“Those early lessons I got on craft—from likely and unlikely sources—have stayed with me through every essay, every editing job, every student manuscript, and through to writing my memoir.”
...and a few more links
Pieces of history: Urgent effort to preserve thousands of pairs of children’s shoes at Auschwitz
Solito is a personal story of immigration that sheds light on the universal.
A glimpse at early Cormac McCarthy interviews that were recently discovered.
Two new grief-tinged memoirs of male platonic love and loss.
Search for a Hebrew cookbook was “part of a lifetime of connecting with his roots through food.”
Short takes
Life Story Links: September 20, 2022
This week's roundup includes plenty of memoir writing—both first-person pieces and guidance—plus photo archive help and family history media recommendations.
“I believe that the urge to examine life lies at the heart of writing. Engaging in this kind of close examination is enormously difficult—but can be enormously rewarding.”
—Alan Gelb
Vintage photo of three children in New York City taken some time between 1940-1979 by Morris Huberland, courtesy of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library.
Recording angels
LISTENING TO OUR PAST
In each episode of The Memory Generation, host Rachael Cerrotti converses thoughtfully with someone “about what it means to inherit memories and the power of passing stories from one generation to the next.”
A LIVING EULOGY
“‘Mom, we’re gonna do this differently,’ began my second son, Jason. ‘You know how there is always a eulogy at a funeral? A lot of great things are said. We don’t want to wait until you are dead for obvious reasons.’”
HER STORIES, HER HEIRLOOM
“I came to think of Stella as a modern-day Scheherazade who left me hanging, week to week, as she talked me through the story of her youth.” Michael Frank, author of a book that sits atop my to-be-read pile, One Hundred Saturdays, on the importance—and challenges—of oral history.
Writing our lives
SHIFTS, PAUSES, AND JUXTAPOSITIONS
“Narrative pacing addresses the overall speed of storytelling; emotional pacing addresses the impact of events and their associated emotions throughout the narrative.” Aggie Stewart shares lessons on writing a trauma memoir.
READING LIST
Last week I reviewed To Write the Past, a supportive companion for thoughtful memoirists that promises “to hearten and embolden those who pick it up to set their memories and musings on the page.”
“THROUGH THE LENS OF STORYTELLING”
“As you comb through your memories for storytelling fodder, lean into the uncomfortable and the outright embarrassing.” Artistic director of The Moth, Catherine Burns, is interviewed about what makes a good story.
AWAKENING THE EMERGING WRITER
Of the terrain she covers in her forthcoming book, You, The Story: A Writer’s Guide to Craft Through Memory, YA author Ruta Sepetys says: “It is more about the interior landscape. And through that we all have a story. A day is a story. A year is a story. A life is a story.”
ILLUMINATING HISTORY
“In life as it’s lived, there is no obvious plot; the arc of the past is visible only in hindsight. But in historical fiction, the aim is to capture a story, so fidelity to literal facts and timelines is not always the goal.” In the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, an interesting look at the genre of historical fiction.
“BOY”
It doesn’t go without saying that a songwriter will be a talented memoir writer, but this essay, excerpted from his book Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, shows Bono has earned his life story bona fides.
Managing your family archive
DROWNING IN A SEA OF PAPERS?
This three-step guide from Family Tree magazine promises to yield a “lean, well-curated family history collection” and includes a handy, printable checklist. to help determine which of your family papers to keep and which to toss.
PICTURE THIS
Albuquerque–based genealogist and photo organizer Hazel Thornton shares her take on the popular photo digitization app Photomyne, clearly demonstrating how knowing what scanning method to choose is all about knowing your end goals.
The big short
WORLDS AWAY
Sometimes all you need for a meaningful remembrance is two minutes, as evidenced by this slice-of-life narrative from sisters recalling growing up in their parents’ Hollywood laundry business:
SMALL BUT MIGHTY
The New York Times offers up a guide for their Tiny Memoir Contest (which runs until October 12, 2022), “How to Write a 100-Word Narrative”: “Step-by-step directions for telling a meaningful, interesting and short true story from your life.” Comment—and experiment—here.
A GAME OF STORIES
Storytelling nonprofit The Moth has added a card deck inspired by themes from their live storytelling shows and workshops—orchestrate your own story slam, or use “the story prompts to encourage lively conversation at your next dinner party or family gathering.”
Beyond family history
RECKONING WITH FAMILY HISTORY IN MEMOIR
“These books uniquely tackle the subject of ancestral legacy, leading readers into social and historical questions as one way of understanding the personal past.” Juliet Patterson suggests eight books that investigate family history with imagination.
STORIES OF HER ANCESTORS
What began as a chapter in Mali Bain’s master’s thesis ended up being a five-year journey to extensively research her own family history and connections to colonization in Canada. Now the British Columbia–based personal historian’s book is available in print or as an e-book.
CONNECTING PAST AND PRESENT
“Once again, [Ken] Burns and company have made history come to life — and reminded us that our life, right now, is indeed history in the making.” The U.S. and the Holocaust premiers September 18.
...and a few more links
The art of questioning: simple tips for conducting interviews from the Audio Transcription Center
Commentary by MTSU Professor Larry Burriss: Will your digital family photos be viewable 20 years from now?
“Change the way we listen”: a TEDTalk from Lifestorian Emma Fulenwider
Australia’s archivist on preserving the nation’s official memories
Short takes
Life Story Links: September 6, 2022
Your curated reading list: Kick off September with an array of stories about family history tools, memoir writing tips, and more storytelling inspiration.
“In writing the memoir I had a chance to try to encompass the whirling aspects of my flickering self, to unite my past and present selves, to express a fuller self than I could with my friends and family. Since, with each person we know, we are partial.”
—Sara Mansfield Taber
Vintage photo of a woman holding a baby outside of a building from which they had been evicted, Harlem, New York, 1954. Photograph courtesy of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Family history tools
MAPPING A LIFE
“I started using her iPad to take her to the address of her childhood home in Huntington, Indiana…. Her memories spilled out about people, places, events,” Wisconsin–based personal historian Sarah White recalls in this piece about a newly available app called LifeMapping.
ESSENTIAL FAMILY HISTORY RESOURCE
In her review of Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You, New Jersey–based genealogist Lorraine Arnold says the book’s progressive, actionable steps are conducive to eliminating that feeling of overwhelm when faced with a large family history project.
Our stories, our selves
ON BIOGRAPHY
“Even when a writer and her subject never meet, excavating a life can uncover hidden truths.” Emma Sarappo on what biography reveals—and how picking a subject can be “like picking a roommate.”
“THE BLESSING OF FEELING LIKE I KNOW WHO I AM”
Upon TV producer David Milch’s diagnosis of Alzheimers in 2019, his family members began “recording his personal remembrances and reaching out to others for stories that could stimulate [his] memories, all in the service of creating Life’s Work,” Milch’s memoir, out this month.
DON’T WAIT, MEMOIRIST!
Last week I wrote about why now is the right time to begin writing about your life—and why you should ignore the naysayers.
MOURNING A GUARDIAN OF MEMORY
“This is my responsibility and my privilege—to be custodian of their memories, to be able to pass their stories on to the next generation.” Phillip Maisel, pioneer of video testimonies at the Melbourne Holocaust Museum, has died.
‘YOU’RE BREAKING MY HEART’
“I am queer, a lesbian, or something, born in 1977 to a young, midwestern mom on welfare and no father. In 2002, I wore orange, my grandma’s favorite color, and brushed her hair as morphine quieted the cancer. The years leading up to this, I tried to come out. But I didn’t.” Read this short, powerful autobiographical essay by Chrys Tobey.
‘I NEVER LOOKED UP’
Holocaust survivor Tova Friedman’s new memoir reflects on life as The Daughter of Auschwitz. Listen in as she speaks with NPR’s Scott Simon (9-minute audio):
...and a few more links
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A posthumous memoir of actor Michael K. Williams is published.
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Book review: To Fall in Love, Drink This: A Wine Writer’s Memoir
Short takes