Tag: memoir
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it’s not possible to make a mistake
There’s a scene in Kurt Vonnegut’s book Breakfast of Champions where John meets Mona, a woman from the fictional religious group the Bokononists. John acts shy at first, so Mona says, “It is not possible to make a mistake.” That’s the customary greeting given by all Bokononists when meeting a shy person, she tells him.…
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to reveal, or not to reveal?
“I don’t know whether I should write about my affair,” one of my memoir clients said recently. “Without it, the choices I made after don’t make sense. But I can’t imagine my ex-sister-in-law reading it…She might not forgive me.” This kind of dilemma comes up a lot with my memoir clients. They want to write…
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a beast in my soup
One afternoon I was having lunch with my friend Misha. We were gabbing about who-knows-what when she stopped and said, “There’s a beast in my soup.” I looked over and sure enough, swimming around her soup was a jade-green beetle. We erupted into giggles. “What is the other word?” she said, wiping a tear. She’s…
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the thing about peru
People often ask me why I live in Peru. For years, I’d give an almost-answer: “I like learning Spanish, I love the people, my friends here, the food, the history, the culture.” Those are all true, but they don’t add up to the full reason. Only recently have I understood the real “why.” * In…
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a sharpened stake
I used to think writing was a solitary act. I wrote alone, brainstormed alone, edited alone. Only on very rare occasion did I let it out into the sunlight, did I invite someone in. Partly that’s because I was shy. I didn’t think anyone would want to read what I wrote. And showing someone your…
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ghosted
Years ago, I met a client in person after months of working together. Right after, she ghosted me. She was a renowned clothing designer, and I was nervous to visit her studio. Still, she was friendly and welcoming, and I left thinking it had gone well. Then she stopped returning my emails. Weeks turned to…
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how to write
(a lesson in grammar) Earnestly. Honestly.Tired, cold, thirsty. With a pencil or pen.With or without a plan.With alarm or with tranquility. With abandonWith uncertaintyWith angerWith patience Joyfully. In big letters! Messily, illegibly. Or neatly. On a laptop, in a notebook, on the back of a receipt. On a Post-It, on a napkin, in the snow,…
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deep sea creatures
“Mia’s teachers want her to skip a grade,” some guy named Tim was saying about his daughter. This was a friend’s house, maybe five years ago. “But we’re gonna keep her in first.” “Why?” I asked. Several people turned and looked at me like I was an idiot. “Um, because it would be really hard…
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greg and jessi
“Say a character walks into a room right as something crashes through the ceiling,” my student Greg was saying. Greg was a senior majoring in creative writing and physics, and he often stayed after class to pepper me with questions. “How would you explain why he looks up?” My TA Chloé and I looked at…
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the right person
Last spring, I had a call with a woman who wanted to write a memoir of her career in the military and then in crypto. It was instantly clear that we are opposites in every way. Her style and background were so vastly different from any project I’d worked on that I didn’t expect us…
Kimberly Bunker, MFA 