Reflections on Creative Nonfiction, Memoir, (Auto)Biography, Life-Writing, and the Essay
07 Dec 2012 at 20:54
Julija Šukys
Academia, Adam Gopnik, Chris Arthur, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Dylan Thomas, Essays, Georgia o'Keefe, Interviews, Ireland, Journeys, Ordinariness, Paul Valéry, Personal Essays, Reviews, Uncategorized, Writing
Chris Arthur, On the Shoreline of Knowledge: Irish Wanderings. Iowa City: Shoreline Books, 2012. The carefully crafted, meditative essays in On the Shoreline of Knowledge sometimes start from unlikely objects or thoughts, a pencil or some fragments of commonplace conversation, but they soon lead the reader to consider fundamental themes in human experience. The unexpected [...]
07 Dec 2012 at 20:53
Julija Šukys
Buddhism, Chris Arthur, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, E. B. White, Editing, Essays, Interviews, Ireland, Patrick Madden, Paul Valéry, Personal Essays, Structure, Uncategorized, Writing
Chris Arthur, On the Shoreline of Knowledge: Irish Wanderings. Iowa City: Shoreline Books, 2012. This is Part II of a two-part interview with Chris Arthur. Click here to access Part I. Julija Šukys: Like you, I’m obsessed with the writing of ordinary lives. The following passage is marked in pencil and with exclamation marks in [...]
30 Jun 2012 at 11:23
Julija Šukys
Archives, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Eastern Europe, Ellen Cassedy, Interviews, Journeys, Judaism, Language and Multilingualism, Lithuania, Translation, Uncategorized, Villages, Vilna Ghetto, Vilnius, Yiddish
We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust. University of Nebraska Press, 2012. We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust tells the story of Ellen Cassedy’s personal journey into the Jewish heartland of Lithuania – the land of her Jewish forebears – and then expands into an exploration of how Lithuania today is engaging with [...]
14 Mar 2012 at 08:23
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Brain Injury, CNF Conversations, Contests and Prizes, Creative Nonfiction, Life-writing, Memory, Mental Illness, Mira Bartók, Mothering, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing
Congratulations to Mira Bartók on winning the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography for The Memory Palace. The Circle says The Memory Palace “rose to the formal challenge of blending her mother’s journals, reflections on her mother’s mental illness and subsequent homelessness, and thoughts on her own recovery from a head injury to create [...]
06 Feb 2012 at 07:49
Julija Šukys
Autobiography, Biography, Brain Injury, Children, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Memoir, Memory, Mental Illness, Mira Bartók, Mothering, Uncategorized, Writing
Mira Bartók, The Memory Palace. Free Press, 2011. “Even now, when the phone rings late at night, I think it’s her. I stumble out of bed ready for the worst. The last time my mother called was in 1990. I was thirty-one and living in Chicago. She said if I didn’t come home right away [...]
15 Dec 2011 at 07:52
Julija Šukys
Academia, Alternate Economies, Archives, Calls for Submissions, CNF Conversations, Contests and Prizes, Countdown to Publication, Creative Nonfiction, Essays, Friendship, Funding, Marketing, Publicity, Publishing, SheWrites, Uncategorized, Writing
I started my blog almost two years ago after attending a writers’ workshop on publishing in the digital age. There wasn’t much talk of e-books or self-publishing from the presenters. Instead, they hammered a single message into us all day: you, as writers, need an electronic presence . . . preferably a blog. It’s how you control [...]
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 [...]
11 Nov 2011 at 04:27
Julija Šukys
Academia, Autobiography, Biography, Children, CNF Conversations, Creative Nonfiction, Domesticity, Editing, Epistolophilia, Journeys, Libraries, Malta and Gozo, Memoir, Mothering, Siberia, Uncategorized, Writing
I haven’t written much here on the blog lately. In part, this is because I’ve been working surprisingly well. I’m making swift progress, and the energy I pour into my new book (#3) leaves little for writing here. Writing resources, it seems, are finite. Undertaking the writing of a book is daunting. It’s a tough [...]
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 [...]
