Overview

"Bestselling author and renowned professor Mary Karr offers a master class in the essential elements of great memoir--delivered with her signature wit, insight, and candor. Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr's The Liars' Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well. For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse. (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and ""black belt sinner,"" providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told-- and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate. Joining such classics as Stephen King's On Writing and Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today's most popular literary forms--a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft."

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9781504648394

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Reviews

Passionate and irreverent-and reminds us why we love a good memoir. -- Elle A generous and singularly insightful examination of memoir. -- Kirkus Reviews A master class on the art of the memoir. -- New York Times Book Review Examines our enduring drive to make memory speak and to 'wring some truth from this godawful mess of a single life.' -- Vogue Fresh and heartfelt...As a writing guide, this book is a success. Never is Karr dull or didactic; rather, the author instructs and inspires through example and a love for the art of memoir. -- Library Journal (starred review) Full of Karr's usual wit, compassion and, perhaps most reassuringly, self-doubt. -- Washington Post Karr has written another astonishingly perceptive, wildly entertaining, and profoundly honest book-funny, fascinating, necessary. -- Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author Karr, the author of three lauded memoirs...offers her wisdom in this instructive guide to the genre...Karr lends her characteristic trueness and 'you-ness' to the subject of writing memoirs, wisely (and quite often humorously) guiding readers in their understanding and experience of the art. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Mary Karr reads...with the forthright delivery of the seasoned professor that she is...Karr's considered and straightforward delivery [provides a] thoroughly listenable and interesting audiobook. -- AudioFile Reminds us not only how compelling personal stories can be, but how, in the hands of a master, they can transmute into the highest art. -- Boston Globe Should be required reading for anyone attempting to write a memoir, but anyone who loves literature will enjoy it too. -- Wall Street Journal This joyful celebration of memoir packs transcendent insights with trademark hilarity. -- George Saunders, New York Times bestselling author

Mary Karr reads...with the forthright delivery of the seasoned professor that she is...Karr's considered and straightforward delivery [provides a] thoroughly listenable and interesting audiobook. -- AudioFile A generous and singularly insightful examination of memoir. -- Kirkus Reviews Fresh and heartfelt...As a writing guide, this book is a success. Never is Karr dull or didactic; rather, the author instructs and inspires through example and a love for the art of memoir. -- Library Journal (starred review) Karr, the author of three lauded memoirs...offers her wisdom in this instructive guide to the genre...Karr lends her characteristic trueness and 'you-ness' to the subject of writing memoirs, wisely (and quite often humorously) guiding readers in their understanding and experience of the art. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Reminds us not only how compelling personal stories can be, but how, in the hands of a master, they can transmute into the highest art. -- Boston Globe Full of Karr's usual wit, compassion and, perhaps most reassuringly, self-doubt. -- Washington Post A master class on the art of the memoir. -- New York Times Book Review Should be required reading for anyone attempting to write a memoir, but anyone who loves literature will enjoy it too. -- Wall Street Journal Examines our enduring drive to make memory speak and to 'wring some truth from this godawful mess of a single life.' -- Vogue Passionate and irreverent-and reminds us why we love a good memoir. -- Elle This joyful celebration of memoir packs transcendent insights with trademark hilarity. -- George Saunders, New York Times bestselling author Karr has written another astonishingly perceptive, wildly entertaining, and profoundly honest book-funny, fascinating, necessary. -- Cheryl Strayed, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Author Information

Mary Karr is the author of three award-winning, bestselling memoirs: The Liars' Club, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Cherry, which was selected as a notable book by book reviews nationwide; and Lit, which was one of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year (and made virtually every other Best of the Year list) and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. A Guggenheim Fellow in poetry, Karr has won Pushcart Prizes for both verse and essays. She is the Peck Professor of Literature at Syracuse University.

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