Debra Monroe  has made her smashing debut on my Amazon wish-list. The memoirist/novelist and professor in Texas State University’s MFA program has some sage words on memoir, especially regarding motifs, authentic chronology, and the writing life (e.g. “resist envy and comparisons. Just work hard”).

The entire interview with Katie Cortese is in the nov/dec issue of AWP’s The Writer’s Chronicle. My favorite part dealt with writing about yourself in memoir:

“You are not enough. Your feelings — the word makes me cringe — are not enough. The intersection of the self with natural, historical, and cultural forces is your subject.”