Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
18 Jun 2012 at 09:43
Julija Šukys
Canada, Children, Domesticity, Epistolophilia, Events, Gardening, Libraries, Mothering, Ona Šimaitė, Publicity, Publishing, Uncategorized
It’s been an amazing few weeks: there have been fantastic reviews of my book Epistolophilia appearing from coast to coast. I’ve been out to British Columbia, where I gave my first real public reading at the beautiful Vancouver Public Library, and we launched the book with a splash on June 7, 2012 in Montreal. It [...]
13 Apr 2011 at 13:58
Julija Šukys
CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Editing, Gardening, Mothering, Personal Essays, Russia, Siberia, Uncategorized, Writing
I disappeared for a while. Sorry about that. I got stuck in that place that we all know well: the fragmented, too-many-things-on-my-plate place. First of all, it’s tax season here in Canada, which for a numerically challenged humanist like me, means it’s the season of hell. So far, it’s robbed me of almost three full [...]
For some time now our family has been ordering our groceries online from a local company called “Les Jardins Urbains” (Urban Gardens). At first, the idea was simply to streamline our lives and to save our Saturdays that were getting eaten up by thankless tasks like shopping. We’ve been procuring food like this for well [...]
A few days ago I heard a snippet of conversation on the radio that got me thinking about my garden. On an NPR program called “On Point,” the writer Sydney Edison described how she had been gardening more than two acres of land for fifty years. “Gardens reflect your life back to you,” she said. [...]
19 May 2010 at 11:36
Julija Šukys
Canada, Children, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Exile, Gardening, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Lithuania, Mothering, Ona Šukienė, Research, Russia, Siberia, Slavs, Villages
A couple months ago I took my son to visit my Aunt Birutė to talk about family history and my grandmother’s exile. She gave me some extraordinary photographs during that visit, including several from Siberia. More than I expected. One small photograph, dated 1957, shows my grandmother’s house. Made of logs and with a straw [...]
31 Mar 2010 at 08:59
Julija Šukys
Alternate Economies, Anthropology, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Friendship, Gardening, Journeys, Margaret Paxson, Research, Russia, Siberia, Slavs, Villages, Writing
I’ve been reading my friend Margaret Paxson’s book, Solovyovo: The Story of Memory in a Russian Village. Paxson, an anthropologist, watched, interviewed and listened to the villagers of Solovyovo for many months to learn how they related to each other, to their land and to the past. Yesterday, shortly before going to a dinner party [...]
