Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
22 Mar 2012 at 06:33
Julija Šukys
Children, Countdown to Publication, France, Friendship, Journeys, Judaism, Malta and Gozo, Mothering, North Africa, Research, SheWrites, Uncategorized
A few months ago, a friend asked me before departing to France on sabbatical if she should be concerned about anti-Semitism there. “Oh no,” I said, dismissing her concerns. Now, in the wake of the Toulouse Jewish school shooting, I see I may have been wrong to be so quick in my assurance that all [...]
15 Mar 2012 at 10:10
Julija Šukys
Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, Editing, Epistolophilia, Essays, Journalism, Journeys, Personal Essays, Publishing, Rejection, SheWrites, Structure, Uncategorized, Writing
I’m leading a writer’s workshop on the personal essay in the fall. I’m happy about it, because the essay is a form I love. I tend to write essays at the beginning of a bigger project, and use them as a way to test out ideas and to work through central questions of longer projects. [...]
08 Mar 2012 at 07:26
Julija Šukys
Archives, Chronology, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, Epistolophilia, Letters, Life-writing, Memory, Ona Šimaitė, Research, Reviews, SheWrites, Structure, Uncategorized, Writing
The first review of Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Šimaitė appeared a few days ago. And even though this isn’t my first book or review, it’s still a wild ride to have strangers reading my work. In her review of the book, Claire Posner points to a major challenge that I faced writing this [...]
16 Feb 2012 at 06:31
Julija Šukys
Archives, Biography, Children, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Epistolophilia, Friendship, Funding, Journeys, Letters, Libraries, Life-writing, Lithuania, Marketing, Memoir, Mothering, Ona Šimaitė, Publicity, Publishing, Research, SheWrites, Silence is Death, Uncategorized, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Writing
The day before yesterday I received a note from my publisher saying that copies of my book had arrived in the warehouse, and that I could begin announcing its publication. Though my official date of publication is March 1, 2012, the baby’s come early. It’s a strange and great feeling to know that my book [...]
02 Feb 2012 at 05:24
Julija Šukys
Blurbs, Camille Paglia, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, David Bezmozgis, Epistolophilia, Friendship, George Orwell, Marketing, Publicity, Publishing, SheWrites, Stephen Elliott, Uncategorized
The title of this post comes from an essay by Alan Levinovitz called I Greet You in the Middle of a Great Career: A Brief History of Blurbs. He quotes George Orwell, who was a strict enemy of blurbs, calling them “disgusting tripe.” The article is an interesting history of praise of authors by authors. [...]
26 Jan 2012 at 08:25
Julija Šukys
Biography, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Epistolophilia, Feminism, Life-writing, Mothering, Ona Šimaitė, Publishing, SheWrites, Uncategorized, Virginia Woolf, Writing
This morning I read a really interesting conversation with Michael Scammel, the biographer of Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn and Arthur Koestler. A lot of what Scammel said about his path to biography resonated with me. He describes having wanted to become a fiction writer in his twenties (just as I did), only to find that he “didn’t [...]
19 Jan 2012 at 04:22
Julija Šukys
Academia, Algeria, Archives, Biography, Catholicism, Children, Christianity, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Editing, Epistolophilia, Grad School, Journeys, Libraries, Lithuania, Mothering, Ona Šimaitė, Paris, Research, Residencies and Fellowships, Russia, Saints, SheWrites, Siberia, Silence is Death, Tahar Djaout, Uncategorized, Writing
This is Who-Man. My son and I invented him over breakfast this morning. Who-Man is a superhero whose arch-enemy is a many-eyed monster called “Crime.” Who-Man wears a bumpy suit (as you can see in Sebastian’s rendition of him above). The suit can shoot fire, but our hero rarely has to use this weapon. He [...]
12 Jan 2012 at 05:09
Julija Šukys
Academia, Biography, Canada, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, E-books, Editing, Epistolophilia, Memoir, Publishing, SheWrites, Silence is Death, Uncategorized, Writing
For almost ten years now, there’s been growing anxiety in the writing community about the “publishing crunch.” Essentially, what’s happened is this: publishers find themselves in increasing financial peril; they need to make money, so they try to make safe bets. The result for readers is a “narrowing of the breadth and depth and diversity of [...]
29 Dec 2011 at 09:31
Julija Šukys
Biography, Contests and Prizes, Countdown to Publication, Editing, Epistolophilia, Funding, Journeys, Libraries, Poetry, Rejection, Research, Residencies and Fellowships, SheWrites, Uncategorized, Writing, Yiddish
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I couldn’t have written Epistolophilia without writers’ grants and research fellowships. A number of different arts agencies and institutions — these are listed in the Acknowledgements to my book — helped me pay for plane tickets, get paper for printing, buy time for writing, and (perhaps [...]
22 Dec 2011 at 06:09
Julija Šukys
Archives, Children, Countdown to Publication, Epistolophilia, Essays, Language and Multilingualism, Life-writing, Ona Šimaitė, Publishing, Research, Russia, SheWrites, Translation, Uncategorized, Writing
Recently, a fellow writer (who publishes short essays and pieces of travel writing) told me about a book she’d just finished reading. It was an excellent book she said, but added with wide eyes: “It took him seven years to write! That’s crazy. I could never do that.” I have this thing I do when [...]
