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The Autobiographer's Handbook: The 826 National Guide to Writing Your Memoir

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At last―the contemporary masters of memoir have come together to reveal their strategies and impart their advice. This book contains an unprecedented wealth of knowledge in one place.

In The Autobiographer's Handbook , you're invited to a roundtable discussion with today's most successful memoirists. Let Nick Hornby show you how the banal can be brilliant. Elizabeth Gilbert will teach you to turn pain into prose. Want to beat procrastination? Steve Almond has the answer. Learn about memory triggers (Ishmael music) and warm-up exercises (Jonathan internet backgammon). These writers may not always agree (on Tobias Wolff, yes, Frank McCourt, no) but whether you're a blossoming writer or a veteran wordsmith, this book will help anyone who has ever dreamed of putting their story on paper, on writing themselves into existence.

STEVE ALMOND • JONATHAN AMES • ISHMAEL BEAH • ELIZABETH GILBERT • NICK HORNBY • A. J. JACOBS • MAXINE HONG KINGSTON • PHILLIP LOPATE • FRANK MCCOURT • DAVID RAKOFF • ESMERALDA SANTIAGO • JULIA SCHEERES • ART SPIEGELMAN • ANTHONY SWOFFORD • SARAH VOWELL • SEAN WILSEY • TOBIAS WOLFF • AND MANY MORE

242 pages, Paperback

First published August 6, 2002

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About the author

Jennifer Traig

21 books39 followers
Jennifer Traig is a frequent contributor to McSweeney's and The Forward. She is the author of a series of young adult books and a humor book, JUDAIKITSCH. She has a Ph.D. in literature and lives in San Francisco.

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5 stars
19 (26%)
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30 (41%)
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
Profile Image for Brad.
776 reviews
August 18, 2017
Four-and-a-half stars. I took copious notes while reading this book. No, this book won't get you published, but it might light to fire under your butt to write your story. in fact, the book has sobering thoughts about measuring one's success by the success of a book. An enjoyable read even if I never write a word.

Could've used a little more in the "so you want to get published section"...even if the advice is obsolete almost a decade later.

Profile Image for Camille Beredjick.
Author 3 books27 followers
January 14, 2019
I loved this! The editors selected a fantastic group of writers to chime in, and the Q&A format was surprisingly helpful and inspiring. Would recommend to anyone interested in first-person writing who needs a boost to get going. And I'm always happy to support 826!
307 reviews
December 7, 2023
There is some gold you can mine from here. Mostly though it reassures you that there are a multitude of perspectives, and infinite ways to write. Find your voice and follow it to the page.
Profile Image for Ciara.
Author 3 books371 followers
November 18, 2008
the title pretty much says it all. for real. it's pretty straightforward. 826 is some weird writing thingamajig that dave eggers started, & kudos to him for doing that--i hate everything he has ever written & i'm no fan of "mcsweeney's" either, so i'm glad he is doing something useful with all the prestige & possible money he makes off his writing. i guess it mostly has programs for young writers (like high schoolers), teaching them how to be better writers & break into publishing & stuff. that's cool. it would have been nice if there was such a dedicated program like that when i was a teenager. i guess they also have some programs for adults, including a very popular memoir-writing program, since memoirs are hot hot hot right now! i read this not because i want to write my own memoir...after all, i'm only 29 & the last few years have been a little slow. i don't kid myself into thinking i am great memoir fodder. no, i read this in the hopes that i could adapt some memoir-writing ideas into zine-writing. after all, both mediums contain elements of creative non-fiction, right? & in that respect, this book was kind of helpful. better than that, it was much more entertaining than i had expected. it's broken down into sections, from how to start writing to how to address writing about real people that might not want to be written about to how to structure your memoir to how you know you're done writing your memoir, etc etc etc, & it's all told in the form of quotes from different memoirists of many genres offering their two cents on the topic at hand. frank mccourt is not real helpful. he's all, "i sat down to write & out came one bestselling masterpiece after another. who knows how i do it? the important thing is that if i can do it, so can you." um, not really, frank, but thanks for the vote of confidence. elizabeth gilbert was the most verbose & new age hand-holdy-y. she totally would decide to go travel around india & italy & who knows where else after getting divorced. she's just that type, you know? i bet she also wears shawls a lot. hand-woven shawls, bought from peasants somewhere. still, interesting book.
Profile Image for Ocean.
Author 4 books51 followers
October 29, 2012
this book probably won't interest you unless you are writing a memoir or seriously considering doing so. fortunately (in this instance), i was 145 pages into my memoir & hitting the "oh my gawd what is the fucking POINT" plateau when i stumbled across this book. this book was SO HELPFUL in getting past that! it collects the anecdotes of about 20-30 people who've written some of the more interesting memoirs of our time. it's like hanging out with a bunch of really dynamic working writers & eavesdropping while they shoot the shit.
an unintended consequence of this book was that it made me REALLY dislike sarah vowell (who i previously merely felt disinterested in.) i think it was the confession that she's only written for school or money. ew! and then, in the chapter where people were talking about whether they write on a set schedule or in bursts of inspiration, her only comment was, "i'm oh so bursty!" BARFFFFFFF. i can imagine some people thinking that that is a clever and endearing thing to say. i don't at all. but i guess that's my personal preference. other than that, this book was thoroughly enjoyable and well worth reading if you'd like to write about your life.
Profile Image for loafingcactus.
431 reviews50 followers
July 27, 2014
I used to think that writing was called lonely because one has to lock oneself away to do it. As I have been working on my book I am realizing it is because it is just you and the book and it simply isn't possible for anyone else to be part of that relationship. No matter what decisions another writer has made about their book, they have never made the decisions you have to make about your book.

Consequently, what any one person has to say about how they write is "meh." But collecting 10s of writers all to make little comments greatly increases the likelihood something will be worthwhile to you. So, this was an excellent way to put together an advice book. As other reviewer's have noted, it isn't terribly deep or complex, but if broadly speaking you are wondering, "has anyone experienced writing the way I do" this book might find you your match.
Profile Image for PMP.
249 reviews21 followers
October 18, 2011
The chief advantage of the somewhat schizophrenic organisation of material is a relentless, albeit slightly varied, repetition, that drives home the point that memoirists of various stripes go through similar experiences. I wonder if it wouldn't have been better -- insofar as the goal is to encourage would-be memoirists to get started -- simply to set up an open-source archive of the full interviews with each author. Still, I mustn't begrudge the generous spirit underlying this project.
Profile Image for Julia Smillie.
104 reviews3 followers
July 29, 2009
Terrific insight and advice from a variety of memoir writers. Love that some of it is completely contradictory, lending credence to the idea that there is no right way to go about writing, other than WRITING.
17 reviews
December 28, 2014
An interesting book if you are looking into memoir writing. It is presented as a series of topics followed by several memoirists' responses. You quickly figure out that every one of them does things a different way.
Profile Image for Emily.
236 reviews16 followers
Want to read
September 27, 2008
writing advice from Nick Hornby, Elizabeth Gilbert, Frank McCourt, etc! Sounds good to me!
Profile Image for Janice.
Author 10 books180 followers
Read
November 16, 2008
Hear me blather about what I think I know about writing memoir in this book benefiting the 826 child literacy program.
4 reviews7 followers
September 9, 2009
love the quick-moving advice...like you're in a room filled with all these great writers.
Profile Image for Deb.
117 reviews7 followers
March 21, 2010
It was helpful to have so many point of views about the craft of writing memoir.

I borrowed this from the library and would be inclined to add it to my personal collection.
478 reviews3 followers
February 17, 2011
interesting and inspiring, even though the advise is pretty contradictory. Overall message: do what works for you.
365 reviews
February 3, 2016
Interesting, but very contradictory. Every topic they talked about, there were basically people on both ends of the spectrum, and everywhere in-between. Still, it was pretty informative.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Katrina Dreamer.
323 reviews12 followers
April 15, 2016
I am in the middle of writing my memoir and I found several pieces of good advice on things I hadn't even considered, as well as a long list of memoirs to go read.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews

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