Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
28 Dec 2012 at 12:14
Julija Šukys
Biography, Canada, CanLit, Creative Nonfiction, Epistolophilia, Essays, Ona Šimaitė, Publicity, Publishing, Quebec, Reviews, Uncategorized, Virginia Woolf
Maisonneuve Magazine is published out of Montreal and “has been described as a new New Yorker for a younger generation, or as Harper’s meets Vice, or as Vanity Fair without the vanity.” The quarterly offers “a diverse range of commentary across the arts, sciences, daily and social life.” When the publication asked its contributors to [...]
03 Jun 2012 at 13:05
Julija Šukys
Academia, Archives, Biography, Canada, Children, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Editing, Epistolophilia, Essays, Exile, Feminism, France, Interviews, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Libraries, Life-writing, Lithuania, Marketing, Media, Mothering, Ona Šimaitė, Publicity, Publishing, Research, Reviews, Uncategorized, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Virginia Woolf, Writing
Here’s an interview I did with ForeWord Reviews, a great publication that focuses on books published by independent presses. You can access the original here (scroll down to the bottom of the page): Conversational interviews with great writers who have earned a review in ForeWord Reviews. Our editorial mission is to continuously increase attention to [...]
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 [...]
11 Oct 2011 at 04:10
Julija Šukys
Academia, Archives, Autobiography, Beth Kaplan, Biography, Canada, Children, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Exile, Journalism, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Marketing, Memoir, Mothering, Publishing, Rejection, Research, Russia, Theatre, Translation, Uncategorized, Virginia Woolf, Writing, Yiddish
Beth Kaplan, Finding the Jewish Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of Jacob Gordin. Syracuse University Press, 2007 (Paperback 2012). * In this revelatory biography, Beth Kaplan sets out to explore the true character and creative achievements of her great-grandfather Jacob Gordin, playwright extraordinaire and icon of the Yiddish stage. Born of an Anglican mother and [...]
16 May 2011 at 09:35
Julija Šukys
Adoption, Alice Munro, China, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Infertility, Memoir, Mothering, Personal Essays, Publishing, Susan Olding, Uncategorized, Virginia Woolf, Writing
Susan Olding, Pathologies: A Life in Essays. Calgary: Freehand Books, 2008. * Susan Olding’s first book, Pathologies: A Life in Essays, won the Creative Nonfiction Collective’s Readers’ Choice Award, and was nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction. Her essays, fiction, and poetry have appeared widely in Canada and the United States, and she is [...]
15 May 2011 at 13:20
Julija Šukys
Adoption, Autobiography, China, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Editing, Friendship, Infertility, Memoir, Mothering, Personal Essays, Publishing, Susan Olding, Uncategorized, Virginia Woolf, Writers' Workshops, Writing
Susan Olding, Pathologies: A Life in Essays. Calgary: Freehand Books, 2008. * This is Part II of a two-piece interview with author, Susan Olding. Click here to access Part I. Julija Šukys: You describe leaving Maia for the first time– it’s not an easy thing to do, but necessary and desirable for your work. There, [...]
04 May 2011 at 11:19
Julija Šukys
Academia, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Louise DeSalvo, Memoir, Mothering, Personal Essays, Uncategorized, Virginia Woolf, Writing
One of my first Life-blood posts was a short review of Louise DeSalvo’s essay, “A Portrait of the Puttana as a Middle-Aged Woolf Scholar.” I came across that piece in my search for some frank and honest discussion by women about mothering and writing. My son was still very little (around two), and I was [...]
07 May 2010 at 13:38
Julija Šukys
Domesticity, Life-blood, Louise DeSalvo, Mothering, Virginia Woolf, Writing
Louise DeSalvo, “A Portrait of the Puttana as a Middle-Aged Woolf Scholar.” Between Women: Biographers, Novelists, Critics, Teachers and Artists Write About Their Work on Women (Routledge, 1993), 35-53. I love this essay for many reasons. 1) It’s a seriously learned text written in a light and readable first-person voice. 2) It tells a story [...]
22 Mar 2010 at 17:38
Julija Šukys
Children, Domesticity, Feminism, Mothering, Virginia Woolf, Writing
In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf asks a series of questions: Why have women traditionally written so little when compared with men? What needs to change in women’s lives in order to make writing possible? And why have women been so absent from literary history? The answer, she suggests, lies in the conditions [...]
10 Mar 2010 at 08:53
Julija Šukys
Algeria, Anne Carson, Anthropology, Archives, Assia Djebar, Biography, Creative Nonfiction, Exile, Journeys, Ona Šimaitė, Ona Šukienė, Paris, Research, Russia, Siberia, Virginia Woolf, Writer's block
A writer friend of mine asked me recently how I keep going when things aren’t going well, and what I do when I become blocked. The most useful thing I do when I feel empty is read. I turn to authors whose work I want to emulate: Virginia Woolf, Anne Carson, Assia Djebar, Joan Didion, [...]
