Inventing the Truth
The Art and Craft of Memoir
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · May 20, 1998
For anyone who enjoys reading memoirs—or is thinking about writing one—this collection offers a master class from nine distinguished authors, including Annie Dillard, Frank McCourt, and others.
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- Who it’s for
- Nine memoirists consider the choices, difficulties, and discoveries involved in shaping lived experience into a book.
- Themes
- Memoir writing craft, Memoirists’ creative process, Memory and the past
- Genres
- Writing Nonfiction & Memoir, Personal Memoirs, Writing as a Career
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Start with this bookAbout this book
For anyone who enjoys reading memoirs—or is thinking about writing one—this collection offers a master class from nine distinguished authors, including Annie Dillard, Frank McCourt, and others. The events, memories, and emotions of the past often resist the orderly structure of a book.
Continue reading
Inventing the Truth offers wisdom from nine notable memoirists about their process (Ian Frazier searched through generations of family papers to understand his parents' lives), the hurdles they faced (Annie Dillard tackles the central dilemma of memoir: what to put in and what to leave out), and the unexpected joys of bringing their pasts to the page. Featured authors include Russell Baker on Growing Up; Jill Ker Conway on The Road from Coorain; Annie Dillard on An American Childhood; Ian Frazier on Family; Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Colored People; Alfred Kazin on A Walker in the City; Frank McCourt on Angela's Ashes; Toni Morrison on Beloved; and Eileen Simpson on Poets in Their Youth.
Memory on the Page
Nine memoirists consider the choices, difficulties, and discoveries involved in shaping lived experience into a book.
Come here for
- Memoir craft from writers including Annie Dillard, Frank McCourt, and Toni Morrison
- Thoughtful company for your own memoir-writing questions
Expect
- Reflections on what to include—and what to leave out
- A range of perspectives on finding shape in memories
Where it sits
| Writing Nonfiction & Memoir | 96% |
|---|---|
| Writing as a Career | 43% |
| Personal Memoirs | 34% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Art Reference
- Education Resources
- Writing as a Career
- Creative Writing
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Writing Composition
- Fiction Writing
- Writing Nonfiction & Memoir
- Morphology
- Authors
- Russell Baker, Toni Morrison, Alfred Kazin
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- May 20, 1998
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Memoir writing craft · Memoirists’ creative process · Memory and the past
- Reading lane
- Art Reference