Dawn Latta Kirby and Dan Kirby
The authors describe an Contemporary Memoir: emerging subgenre of literary nonfiction and A 21st-Century Genre suggest ways to help students write their own Ideal for Teens mini-memoirs.
or the past 20 years, we have been by a variety of new terms such as literary nonfiction, reading and teaching literary mem- creative nonfiction, and documentary narrative. What oir to students of all ages. In the distinguished these writings from conventional fac- mid-1980s, we began looking for tual and informational texts was that they were not ways to incorporate more nonfiction into our litera- only well-researched accounts of real events or expe- tureF classes, hoping to find a fresh genre unflattened riences but also artful narratives. They employed lit- by instruction. We wanted to explore with students erary techniques borrowed from modern and a genre that literary critics had not already overana- postmodern novelists, including using distinguish- lyzed and for which they had not created formulaic able first-person voice, posing questions, and often heuristics for student analysis. More than anything injecting uncertainties and ruminations into their else, we wanted to find literary works that connected factual texts. Writers such as Truman Capote, Joan directly with students’ lived experiences. During our Didion, Annie Dillard, Loren Eiseley, Michael Herr, search, we discovered Russell Baker’s Growing Up, John Hersey, and Lewis Thomas—all writers of Patricia Hampl’s “Memory and Imagination,” and bestselling nonfiction books—began to find them- William Zinsser’s Inventing the Truth: The Art and selves named as originators of a new genre. This Craft of Memoir. These readings and many others ex- genre of literary nonfiction continues to take shape panded the scope of nonfiction texts for us and our in many forms: reportage, personal essay, biography, students. We began to understand that we were wit- and memoir. Subgenres of literary nonfiction (LN) ness to a genre in the making, that of contemporary include nature, travel, and science writing, as well as memoir (CM). This genre has topped the New York CM. Writers of LN and CM tackle topics such as Times bestseller list for a number of years and has be- prison riots and life (e.g., Baca [CM]; Earley [LN]), come increasingly popular among professional writ- environmental challenges (e.g., Ray [CM]; Gore ers who often helpfully subtitle their books A Memoir. [LN]), violence in American high schools (e.g., Looking for texts that exist outside our instructional Hunter-Gault [CM]; Cullen [LN]), wilderness hik- walls and that lead students to improve their abili- ing and experiences (e.g., Bryson [CM]; Lopez ties in sophisticated reading, writing, critical think- [LN]), and the benefits of eating locally grown food ing, and inquiry strategies, we found CM to be a (e.g., Kingsolver [CM]; Pollan [LN]). genre ideally suited for teens of the 21st century. Contemporary Memoir Background of the Genre Memoir, which has roots in autobiography, has ex- In the early to mid-1970s, literary theorists began isted as a published genre for much longer than most to identify a distinctive group of nonfiction writings readers realize. Hampl (I Could Tell) dates the first
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Western autobiography to Augustine’s 13-volume derive their power not from narcissistic recounting Confessions in 397 A.D. Since then, presidents, corpo- or triviality, nor from a text version of reality televi- rate tycoons, generals, and numerous celebrities have sion, but rather from the honest unfolding of human acted on the need to recount their life stories. Early struggles and triumphs from which important les- memoir consisted primarily of personal accounts by sons are learned, significant family events are pre- famous people, often written near the end of the au- served, and generations of family members braid thors’ lives. At worst, these autobiographies were the cord of their lived experiences. For both profes- rambling, unreflective, inflated volumes that literary sional and student writers, the best CMs do not critics deemed marginal forms of literature unworthy read like pages from diaries or tabloids, but rather of reading. Thankfully, during the last 20 years or so, like the rich stories of literary novels. autobiography and the old memoirs have been re- Like our students, many writers of CM were born as literary memoir and transformed into a dy- completely unknown prior to the publication of namic and highly readable genre that we term their books. As students read excerpts and entire contemporary memoir (Kirby and Kirby). CM books, however, we invite them to note how Our initial interest in CM was sparked by the tools of the novelist and the poet permeate the reading Baker’s Growing Up, a work that may well writing—to note the extent to which writers of CM have been the first in this new genre. In interviews frequently use conventional literary devices such as following the bestseller success of his memoir, figurative language, metaphor, symbol, dialogue, Baker acknowledges that he wasn’t sure why any- scene-setting, interior monologue, imagery, and one would be interested in the details of his life. character development. Even more importantly, as Many of our students often share these sentiments. Hampl notes, “the contemporary memoir has reaf- We tell students, who are unsure of the significance firmed the primacy of the first person voice in Amer- of their relatively short lives, that even Baker had ican imaginative writing established by Whitman’s those misgivings. But there are good reasons for ‘Song of Myself’” (I Could Tell 19). The best exam- writing life stories. For Baker, one of these reasons ples of this reborn genre read like good novels rather was his realization that when his ailing mother than dry accounts of historic or daily events. died, all of the stories of his childhood would die Successful and artful CMs illustrate ways that with her. He writes, “These hopeless end-of-the- narrative permits writers to create meaningful mo- line visits with my mother made me wish I had not ments that connect to a reader’s life experience. thrown off my own past so carelessly” (8). He real- Writers of CM use a compelling first-person voice izes that he has little knowledge of family lore and and create detailed word-pictures for their readers. history and that he has not related many of the fam- Certainly the most successful memoirs send readers ily stories and accounts to his children. He confesses on memory journeys of their own. In most good this failing and states, “We all come from the past memoirs, the writer is using the genre to do more and children ought to know what went into their than just remember or describe people and events. making, to know that life is a braided cord” (8). Readers have a sense that memoirists use the form This metaphor of the braided cord and the re- to experiment, solve puzzles and riddles present in alization that they, too, have done little to explore their lives, pose sometimes unanswerable questions, and preserve their past resonates with students and and advance hypotheses and what ifs about their motivates them as well as many published writers. lived experiences. These are abilities and techniques They find satisfaction from sharing their personal, that effective authors weave into all other forms of reflective, and illuminating accounts with various writing, from persuasion and argumentation to ex- readers, working to focus on what we call “mean- position and research. ingful moments” in their lives. Despite the fact that some detractors of memoir have labeled it a confes- Unique Features of Literary sional genre in which writers tell all to “an audience or Contemporary Memoir of voyeurs” (Atlas 25), or that others view CM as feeble psychoanalysis or redemptive journeys, such We like CM not only because it has not been flat- are not the primary aims of CM. Well-crafted CMs tened and eviscerated by instruction but also because
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it is a currently emerging and transitioning genre. white space rather than with more traditional Most students have not had the opportunity to study transitions. In fact . . . a legitimate contemporary genre, especially in non- • Memoirists often eschew transitions. In fiction categories. That CM is presently morphing short, they leave readers to do some of the as a genre has created some problems for readers and heavy lifting of intellectual engagement with book retailers. They may wonder, What category of a text. Writers of CM ask us to enter into the writing is CM, and where do I work of weaving the text into a coherent nar- find it in bookstores and libraries? rative alongside them. Any reader of post- We like CM not only Usually, CM is still shelved in modern fiction is already predisposed to this because it has not been the biography section along- task, illustrating yet another way in which the conventions of fiction are making their flattened and eviscerated side conventional biography, way into CM. by instruction but also autobiography, and a ragtag • CMs are reflective and sometimes partially because it is a currently collection of memoirs of the old school. Some large chain fictionalized creations that reveal truths and emerging and mysteries of lives we would never know if the bookstores have recently begun transitioning genre. author had not chosen to take us there. The to display CMs just inside the issue of truth in memoir is one that must be main entrance, seizing, we addressed with student writers and by read- suppose, on the marketing opportunities of this in- ers who are careful consumers of nonfiction creasingly popular genre. narrative. We have developed particular Although CMs cover a wide variety of sub- strategies for doing so, as we discuss below. jects and forms, they generally share some common characteristics: Once students fully understand these unique • They are often episodic, making use of a features of CM through extensive reading and writ- number of short mini-stories of events and ing in the genre, they are ready to identify these places (recounting meaningful moments). writerly techniques in the CMs they read. Next, as student writers learn to manipulate these tech- • Many of these texts derive their continuity and sense of artistic unity through conven- niques within their own texts, their writing takes tional narrative structures similar to those on a more lively voice, brims with insightful details used in modern fiction, such as the narrative and descriptions, and becomes more fully developed arc with its blueprint of introduction, rising and cohesive. action, climax, falling action, and denoue- ment. Through the author’s recounting of the Why Teach Contemporary Memoir? unfolding of family members’ lives over time, sometimes over multiple generations, a In an era of high-stakes testing, the curriculum in compelling story of family, not just of the many schools becomes not only prescriptive but individual writer, may emerge. It is this col- also almost hermetically sealed. That which is not lection of small stories and meaningful moments, tested does not make its way into many curricula as we term it, that a memoirist transforms despite the fact that meaningful content and test into a larger, more universal narrative that items often are not identical. We see CM and the fascinates us so much as teachers. But CMs are more than just storytelling. techniques that writers of CM employ as being the foundation of many texts and the bases of writing • Many of these texts depart from conventional effectively in multiple genres, including those on narrative structures to explore postmodern mandated tests. In fact, as Hampl observes, CM re- structures. These writers of memoir leave things out. We often relate to students Annie sides at the intersection of narration and reflection, Dillard’s comment that, for her, the most dif- of storytelling and exposition. ficult part of writing memoir is deciding CM is nonfiction but employs the techniques “what to put in and what to leave out” (143). of fiction as well as those of exposition, such as So there are blanks in these books, silences, if meaningful evidence-building and critical reflec- you will, often marked with symbols and tion about real events. Students in our classes who
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are writing their life stories ask questions about of events, encounters, and exchanges. Details their lives for which they do not have answers. As that are not clearly remembered but that are these authentic questions arise, we guide students true to and representative of the people and into research. For example, as students write about situations involved make for good reading, if their names, they may research the meaning of their not for literal Truth. The details help to names; as they investigate the people for whom reveal the writer’s best efforts to represent and relate lived experience. Zinsser provides they are named, they may include details of re- a helpful discussion about dealing with issues searched family history in their writing. When stu- of truth in memoir writing. dents remember some, but not all, of a meaningful moment, they may interview others who were also • Students learn and experiment with post-modern not just standard present to gather additional eyewitness data, recon- conventions in their writing, conventions, bringing essay writing into the ciling the multiple perspectives with their memo- 21st century. These post-modern conventions ries. Memoirists consider the meaning of factual include fluxes in time, white spaces, blanks data and the felt sense of their writing and seek to in the narrative, and shifting perspectives. interweave the two. The writer’s job is to find the • Students explore and expand the scope of the essay. relationships among the evidence and the remem- Conventional essays are perceived by many brances of his or her own experiences. Memoir is teachers and students as formal, impersonal, constructed from facts and feelings, truths and near- and highly structured. An examination of truths. CM engages students in narrative writing contemporary academic journals and pub- but also requires them to examine and reflect—key lished essays, however, will lead readers to elements of exposition. In this way, CM may serve notice that elements of narration—such as as the missing link between personal narrative and personal examples, a lively authorial voice, expository writing that teachers have sought for de- and metaphor—populate modern exposition. cades. Through CM, our students learn to explore, Many of the strictures of the formal essay are remember, reflect, reveal, analyze, organize, priori- falling out of use. Experience with CM offers tize, and understand. writers opportunities to realize that exposi- We are able to meet multiple standards tion at its best is both personal and person- ally meaningful. By writing CM, students through reading and writing CM, a genre that lends may learn to use elements of narration to itself to instructional differentiation better than enliven their expository and academic most nonfiction forms. We teach CM because its writings. themes encourage respect for difference and trans- • When formative interactions with cultural and ethnic di- Students work with their lived experiences. students write about their lives, they encoun- versity. Working with CM builds students’ awareness ter a rare opportunity in formal education to of numerous genres, invites students’ engagement know more about a topic than do their teach- with texts, and promotes students’ meaningful use ers. Even novice and developing writers are of technology as they create the specific appearance able to recall significant experiences, shape and form of their own memoir writing. them into a written piece, and derive mean- ing from those events. Implications for Using CM • Students experience and necessarily practice the in the Classroom value of reflection. Memoir is quite suitable for advanced and accomplished writers because Not only are we able to meet many of our goals and of the reflective quality and flexibility of the objectives for students’ learning by teaching CM, form. but our students also gain valuable abilities and perspectives for interpreting texts that apply within • Students meaningfully employ literary tools. Most and extend beyond the confines of school. For ex- students expect literary devices to appear in fictional works, but few realize their utility ample, consider the following: and significance for nonfiction. CM illus- • Students grapple with issues of Truth and truth. trates that effective writing shares many Memoir benefits from recounting the details techniques across genres.
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We find that studying and experimenting periences and for effectively construing form, with CM provide invaluable knowledge for stu- theme, and purpose just as published authors of dents’ emergent experience with texts, literary con- CM do. We carefully pair readings of excerpts from ventions, and artistic innovations. published CMs with options and writing tools for student writers to explore in several short pieces Practical Ideas for Student Writers: that eventually may form the final Mini-Memoir. Mini-Memoirs The following ideas offer possibilities for student writers of Mini-Memoirs. For each, we offer a bit of We are aware that instructional time is precious background, instructional applications, and sug- and pressured. All currently published CMs are gestions for an exemplar reading. Although the ex- books, a format and length cerpts we selected from these texts are suitable for that may be impractical for We find that studying use with adolescents, the entire book may not be; many instructional applica- and experimenting with we encourage readers to preview materials carefully tions. However, because stu- before using them for instruction. CM provide invaluable dent writers benefit from knowledge for students’ reading and writing contem- 1. Triptych: An Anchor Piece and Two emergent experience porary memoir in numerous Supporting Pieces1 ways, we have developed prac- with texts, literary The writer uses triptych as a structure for pulling conventions, and artistic tical methods for using CM within typically crowded in- together three memory-based writings, juxtaposing innovations. structional time periods and them to make a statement about his or her life. We curricular allotments. Specifi- explore the history of triptych with students and cally, we have developed and had excellent success then devise ways in which that form can be effec- with what we call Mini-Memoirs. tively used for writing a Mini-Memoir. Mini-Memoirs—shorter, yet still effective, History of Triptych versions of full-blown CMs—allow student writers to explore multiple lenses for representing lived ex- Triptych literally means three panels. In early Greece, a triptych was a hinged or folded three-leaved writing tablet. Although this art form was most widely used during the Middle Ages, triptych is also quite post- modern in its contemporary renderings. It requires that viewers perform some of the mental work re- quired to connect the meaning of the panels and thereby help ascribe meaning to the finished work.
Instructional Uses of Triptych Triptych allows student writers to create three pieces of memoir writing that are literarily related. Connections may be in subject matter but they may also include, for example, relationships of motif, chronology, a person, or theme. The writer does not directly state the exact connection among the three pieces, which would lessen its impact much as ex- plaining a joke lessens its humor. In an artistically rendered triptych, readers bring their experiences and interpretive backgrounds to the pieces, yield- ing insights about the writer’s work. This format works well for family pieces in ©Ewa Kubicka—Fotolia.com which the student author and other family mem-
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bers appear. First, student writers decide which 3. Multiple Stories in Which family member might form the central focus of the an Artifact Reoccurs triptych. The piece about that person will be a lon- An artifact is an object that holds significant mean- ger, more elaborated piece of writing. Then, stu- ing. Student writers select one artifact that is im- dent writers select other family members to appear portant to them or has been significant in their lives in the supporting pieces. The order in which the over time. Then they build three or more pieces three pieces appear in the finished triptych helps to around that artifact. The key is to show the impor- focus the reader’s attention and clarify the author’s tance of the artifact to the writer, how and why the emphases and theme. artifact is significant, how it changes over time, and how the student author and others interact with it. Excerpt Idea Artifacts about which students have written include We have found that Elizabeth Cohen’s The House on ballet shoes, a beloved teddy bear, a guitar, and a Beartown Road yields an exploratory context for trip- desk. tych. Her anchor story laments her father’s decline into Alzheimer’s disease. One of her supporting sto- Excerpt Idea ries contrasts her young daughter’s developing mind In Charlotte Nekola’s Dream House: A Memoir, a rec- with her father’s failing mind, processes that often ipe book belonging to the author’s mother is a trea- place the child and the grandfather on an equal sured artifact that helps the author reveal much mental level. Her final supporting story discloses about her family, the time (1950s), and the place personal struggles involved with living alone in a (St. Louis) in which they lived. harsh environment. 4. Multiple Views of a Writer’s Life 2. Multiple Scenes from a Place These pieces may show a chronological or other tem- poral view of important events in the student writ- Student writers aim to reveal the magic of a special er’s life: times the writer learned a valuable lesson, or important place through three (or more) descrip- moments of emotional or psychological growth, epi- tive views of the place. The first piece may be purely sodes that yielded increased self-understanding or descriptive, while the other two pieces show the events that changed the writer. For this Mini-Mem- student author or others in action in the place. Al- oir, students often write what we call ternately, the views may be chronological—the stepping stone pieces, that is, pieces that follow the storyline of beach in the clear morning sun, at midday filled Once with sunbathers, and at the end of the day when lit- Event #1 happened to me, then I was better able to deal or tered and pocked with digs and ruts made by many with Events #2 and #3 when they occurred, Now that bare feet. Or, the views may be seasonal. Herein lies Event #3 has occurred, I can look back and see that Events an opportunity to remind students of the impor- #1 and #2 yielded essential experiences that allowed me to This last version is fruitful for tance of showing people in action in the place, or cope with Event #3. teaching about verb tense and flashback. the various elements of the place itself may be in A variation of this Mini-Memoir is A Year in action: the waves ebb, the pelicans dive, the surf- the Life. In this variation, the author derives thera- boards sparkle. For writing tools, we coach student peutic effect from writing about difficult times. In writers to use vivid verbs and descriptors, allowing the best memoirs of this type, the author’s skill in us to embed teaching vocabulary, adjectives, and reflecting on and telling her story draws the readers adverbs with the writing. into their own reflective journeys of similar experi- ences. Student writers may draw readers into reflec- Excerpt Idea tive contemplations of similar experiences as they Try excerpts from Linda Hasselstrom’s Feels Like relate the events of a particularly significant year in Far: A Rancher’s Life on the Great Plains in which she their lives: the year my parents divorced, the year writes of the emotional impact of returning to her my younger sister was born, or the year my mother family’s South Dakota ranch. battled breast cancer. Significant to the impact of
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this type of writing is the author’s revelation about Note the life lessons of this year. 1. For a more complete discussion of these forms of Overall, Mini-Memoirs are flexible, practical CM, see Kirby and Kirby. forms with many applications for writing in several genres, especially CM, within the confines of test- Works Cited focused curricular limitations. Atlas, James. “Confessing for Voyeurs; The Age of Literary Memoir Is Now.” New York Times Magazine, 12 May 1996. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.
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Dawn Latta Kirby, a former high school English teacher and department chair, is professor of English and English education at Kennesaw State University. She also directs the Kennesaw Mountain Writing Project, an NWP site. Email her at dkirby8@ kennesaw.edu. Dan Kirby, a former high school English teacher and administrator, is professor emeritus of English education at the University of Colorado, Denver. With Dawn, he has coauthored Inside Out, 3rd ed. (with Tom Liner), and New Direc- tions in Teaching Memoir (Heinemann).
READWRITETHINK CONNECTION Lisa Storm Fink, RWT In “Family Memoir: Getting Acquainted with Generations Before Us,” students read a short memoir and then cre- ate a memoir of a family member. Many students will present written memoirs, and their essays will focus on one or two unifying themes. Students can choose instead to create an artistic representation for the memoir. Students accompany their work with an artist’s journal, telling why they have chosen the particular method of presentation and analyzing their successes and shortcomings. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=998
Lao Tzu Visits Baghdad After CNN’s report on Margaret Hassan, an Irish aid worker kidnapped in Baghdad and videotaped by her captors. i. ii. I wake to the death cry, From wonder into wonder then a great horned owl Existence opens, says Lao Tzu. hoots—Morse code I substitute: horror. for this is shaping up iii. to be a pretty good night In London, Tony Blair, speaking with reporters, then the wailing coyotes— demands Hassan’s unconditional release. yips and yelps and short howls iv. in the brush beyond my cabin. The mid-morning din, ten thousand cicadas, Unclear who killed the cottontail. diminished by the silencing of one close by. These could be my last hours. —Robert A. Ayres I still hear Hassan’s voice, ©2010 by Robert A. Ayres Please help me, please help me. I don’t want to die like Bigley.
Robert A. Ayres earned his MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers. His poems appear in anthologies including Four Way Reader #2 (Four Way), Is This Forever or What? (Greenwillow), and Outsiders and Urban Nature (Milkweed). Journal publications include Laurel Review, Marlboro Review, Rattle, and Southwestern American Literature. He lives in Austin, Texas.
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