Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
21 Mar 2013 at 11:54
Julija Šukys
Academia, Conferences and Symposia, Epistolophilia, Events, Feminism, Friendship, Journeys, Nebraska, Ona Šimaitė, Publicity, Publishing, Quebec, Uncategorized, Writing
Lately, I’ve been away from home a lot. And it’s all been in service of my book, Epistolophilia. My “book tour” — as my sister-in-law so generously called the series of lectures, conferences and readings that I almost single-handedly organized and raised money for — has, since November, taken me from Toronto to Chicago to NYC, [...]
20 Sep 2012 at 20:18
Julija Šukys
Archives, Biography, Canada, Catholicism, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Epistolophilia, Feminism, France, Friendship, Jerusalem, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Libraries, Life-writing, Lithuania, Memoir, Mothering, Ona Šimaitė, Paris, Translation, Uncategorized, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Writing
Thanks to Ramunė Jonaitienė for this review in Tėviškės Žiburiai, the Lithuanian-Canadian weekly newspaper. Among the phrases I’m really grateful for is her description of my tone as “calm.” Ačiū, TŽ.
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 [...]
29 Nov 2011 at 07:31
Julija Šukys
Academia, Archives, Autobiography, Biography, CNF Conversations, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Essays, Feminism, Jerusalem, Journeys, Judaism, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Memoir, Nancy K. Miller, Publishing, Research, Russia, Uncategorized, Writing
Nancy K. Miller. What They Saved: Pieces of Jewish Past. University of Nebraska Press, 2011. * In her new memoir, What They Saved: Pieces of a Jewish Past, Nancy K. Miller tells the story of how she reconstructed her family’s missing past from a handful of mysterious objects found in dresser drawers and apartment closets after [...]
29 Nov 2011 at 07:31
Julija Šukys
Academia, Archives, Autobiography, Biography, Children, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Eastern Europe, Feminism, Jerusalem, Journeys, Judaism, Language and Multilingualism, Letters, Life-writing, Memoir, Nancy K. Miller, Orthodoxy, Publishing, Research, Russia, Siberia, Uncategorized, Writing
Nancy K. Miller. What They Saved: Pieces of Jewish Past. University of Nebraska Press, 2011. * This is Part II of a two-part interview. Click here to read Part I. Julija Šukys: I loved reading your descriptions of how you related to “The Old Country” before this quest. “Russia, a vast faraway, almost mythical kingdom [...]
26 Sep 2011 at 13:39
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Beth Kaplan, Biography, Calls for Submissions, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Daiva Markelis, Feminism, Myrna Kostash, Nancy K. Miller, Publishing, Susan Olding, Uncategorized, Writing
A few months ago, I started a feature on the site called CNF Conversations, where I interview other writers of creative nonfiction. (CNF stands for creative nonfiction.) I was looking for a way to do something of substance, to build community, to meet fellow writers, and to learn more about what was happening in the genre. [...]
11 Jul 2011 at 10:19
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Balkans, Biography, Byzantium, Canada, CanLit, Christianity, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Feminism, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Matt Cohen, Memoir, Myrna Kostash, Orthodoxy, Publishing, Rejection, Research, Saints, Slavs, Translation, Ukraine, Uncategorized, Writing
Myrna Kostash, Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2010. * Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Myrna Kostash is a fulltime writer, author of All of Baba’s Children (1978); Long Way From Home: The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada (1980); No Kidding: Inside the World of Teenage Girls [...]
11 Jul 2011 at 10:18
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Balkans, Biography, Byzantium, Canada, CanLit, Christianity, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Feminism, Journeys, Language and Multilingualism, Matt Cohen, Memoir, Myrna Kostash, Orthodoxy, Publishing, Saints, Slavs, Ukraine, Uncategorized, Writing
Myrna Kostash, Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium. Edmonton, AB: University of Alberta Press, 2010. * This is Part II of a two-part interview with Myrna Kostash about her book, Prodigal Daughter. Click here to read Part I. Julija Šukys: You are a writer who is very rooted in Western Canada and in the Ukrainian [...]
Today I got my (I think) semiannual newsletter from Money for Women in the mail. Money for Women supports the work of female and feminist writers by giving relatively small grants for very specific purposes. One grantee this year was given funds to replace an old word processor with a laptop, and when I asked [...]
