Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
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 [...]
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 [...]
11 Oct 2011 at 04:10
Julija Šukys
Academia, Archives, Autobiography, Beth Kaplan, Biography, Children, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Exile, Friendship, Journalism, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Lituanus, Marketing, Memoir, Publishing, Rejection, Research, Russia, Theatre, Translation, Uncategorized, Vilnius
Beth Kaplan, Finding the Jewish Shakespeare: The Life and Legacy of Jacob Gordin. Syracuse University Press, 2007 (Paperback 2012). * This is Part II of a two-part interview with Beth Kaplan about her book, Finding the Jewish Shakespeare. Click here to read Part I. Julija Šukys: My second question about language is about your relationship [...]
07 Oct 2011 at 15:52
Julija Šukys
Biography, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Exile, Journeys, Life-writing, Memoir, Research, Russia, Siberia, Uncategorized, Writing
I’ve officially used up everything I know, so I’ve returned to reading. Today, I spent my morning hopping back and forth between an excruciating memoir of Siberian deportation and a novel about emigration. When the former became too painful to read, I switched to the other, then back again. The former is an amazing story. [...]
09 Aug 2011 at 19:56
Julija Šukys
Academia, Addiction, Autobiography, Catholicism, Children, Christianity, CNF Conversations, Conferences and Symposia, Creative Nonfiction, Daiva Markelis, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Editing, Exile, Friendship, Language and Multilingualism, Lithuania, Louise DeSalvo, Memoir, Mothering, Publishing, Siberia, Uncategorized, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Writing
Daiva Markelis, White Field, Black Sheep: A Lithuanian-American Life. University of Chicago Press, 2010. * Her parents never really explained what a D.P. was. Years later Daiva Markelis learned that “displaced person” was the designation bestowed upon European refugees like her mom and dad who fled communist Lithuania after the war. Growing up in the Chicago suburb [...]
28 Mar 2011 at 15:47
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Biography, Creative Nonfiction, Exile, Lithuania, Memoir, Ona Šukienė, Personal Essays, Publishing, Research, Russia, Siberia, Stephen Elliott, Uncategorized, Villages, Writing
I’ve finally started writing my new book, Siberian Time, in earnest. It will tell the story of my grandmother’s 17-year exile to Siberia. Inevitably, too, it will tell stories about my family members: my father, his sisters, my cousins, my grandfather. Because my chosen forms are the personal essay and creative nonfiction, I almost always [...]
13 Feb 2011 at 15:17
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Biography, Creative Nonfiction, Exile, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Life-blood, WG Sebald, Writing
WG Sebald, The Emigrants (New Directions, 1996 [English translation]). And the last remnants memory destroys – Epigraph to Chapter One I read this book over several months, putting it down then picking it up again weeks later. It’s a meandering and meditative text that gestures toward a point about memory, pain, and shame, rather than [...]
03 Dec 2010 at 11:01
Julija Šukys
Academia, Archives, Exile, Letters, Life-writing, Ona Šukienė, Research, Russia, Siberia, Writing
I’ve been working with letters as literary artifacts for just over a decade now. As a graduate student, my attraction to letters was instant. The very first time I sat down with stack of yellowing missives, I was hooked, and never looked back. I work with letters because I like the intimacy they afford. Piecing [...]
22 Nov 2010 at 12:45
Julija Šukys
Academia, Exile, Mothering, Russia, Siberia, Villages, Writing, Yoga
La varicelle, as it’s called around these parts, or chicken pox to us English speakers. Our doctor confirmed it this morning. Despite my son’s vaccine against it, the virus has taken hold, though perhaps not as firmly as it might have otherwise. As I write, my red-spotted boy colours beside me with his new markers, [...]
12 Nov 2010 at 15:50
Julija Šukys
Archives, Canada, Children, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Exile, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Life-writing, Lithuania, Mothering, Ona Šukienė, Research, Russia, Siberia, Villages, Writer's block, Writing
Pictured above is one of my most cherished possessions. It’s a 1947 postcard sent from my grandmother in Siberia, addressed to her husband and children. It was sent to a town in Massachusetts where we had relatives, though at the time my grandfather and his kids (my father among them) were living in the UK. [...]
