The Art of Memoir

The author of The Liars' Club, a memoir that led the New York Times list for over a year, Mary Karr has taught the form for thirty years and won teaching prizes at Syracuse. Here she breaks down what makes literary memoir work, drawing on her lives as teacher, writer, therapy patient, spiritual seeker and recovered alcoholic. Passages from memoirs she loves and stories from fellow writers anchor the book, and she lays bare her own process, including how she dealt with family and friends. She also examines memory, identity and the cathartic value of looking back. It became a New York Times best seller.

Tim Ferriss, in his favorite and most impactful reads of 2021, highly recommended it to anyone who works with the written word in any capacity.