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on learning self-trust
March 2017, 6:30pm. It’s pitch black and sleeting — spiky, gray slush flying through the air. I curse this oh-so-Rochester night as I drive to teach a novel-writing class. I’m used to weather like this. I grew up here, after all. But tonight, it almost brings me to tears. “I have to get out of…
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who are books for?
“A book is for the reader, not the writer.” Lately I’ve been hearing this idea a lot: that you should write a book based not on what you want to say, but on what the reader needs to hear. There’s truth in that. But the opposite is also true: At its core, a book is…
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on the unfamiliar
When I first moved to Iquitos, a city deep in the Peruvian Amazon, I felt farther from home than I’d ever been. Nothing was familiar. Motos screeched around corners—many with small children, many with women nursing babies. It was 100 degrees, but people stood on sidewalks grilling whole fish. Cumbia rhythms poured through windows. Yet…
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on discovery
One fall Saturday while visiting my parents in upstate New York, we went to the town’s famous annual shindig: the Hilton Apple Fest. We parked at a church nearby, and on the way back to the car, we passed what looked like overgrown brush. Until: “Is that okra?” I said, stepping off the path. “Where?”…
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on wonder
“Why is it important to preserve Kukama culture?” someone asked. “Because the plants don’t speak to us in Spanish,” answered Pascual. “They speak to us in Kukama.” * On Friday I got back from five days in the Amazon. (When I’m not writing, I volunteer with an NGO called Minga Peru. Usually that means meetings…
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on detours
From Charleston, it’s about two and half hours to Tybee Island. Day 2 of my round-country road trip, and I’m already off course. Instead of driving to see my sister in Atlanta, like I’d planned, I’ve come here, entirely because yesterday someone said, “You haven’t been to Tybee? You’d love it!” I am gluttonous for…
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on arriving
And one cold day in January 2020, I arrive in Charleston. * It’s my first stop on a solo road trip around the U.S.—my circuitous search for where I belong. I’m instantly enthralled. Walking through downtown, I start picking out where I’d live if I lived here. I see the sparkling nights, the easy friendships,…
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on being interesting enough
“My sister might be the only person I know who’s interesting enough to write a memoir,” my friend Cayla told me recently, when I mentioned The Memoir Circle. I laughed out loud. “You know it’s not about being interesting!” I said. Then I paused.Maybe she didn’t know that. Writing a memoir isn’t about being interesting.It’s…
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on leaving
It is January 2020. I am driving around the country, starting in New York. From there, I’ll drive south, then west, then up and back east, possibly through Canada. Several people have told me that this trip is adventurous, and that I’m brave. I don’t feel that way. To me it just feels necessary. It is…
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the memoir circle
UPDATE (December 26, 2025): The Memoir Circle is now closed. If you want to be notified when the next one opens, please fill out the form below. Everyone has a story worth telling. But writing it can feel daunting. Where do you start? How do you put a life on the page? The Memoir Circle…
Kimberly Bunker, MFA 