![](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/3fae583f-1613-42e7-9294-0b5689f9d41d/Blanco_Richard_AIF2019.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&q=80&rect=212%2C476%2C2116%2C2124&w=200)
![](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null008cb667-0f67-4d09-9262-fe5e1ef742bc/48133331951_ba47c2e2d6_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&q=80&rect=0%2C172%2C8256%2C4644&w=800)
The Art of the Memoir
![](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null008cb667-0f67-4d09-9262-fe5e1ef742bc/48133331951_ba47c2e2d6_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&q=80&rect=0%2C172%2C8256%2C4644&w=2000)
My mother was the first person who taught me how to use words to survive.
Setup
Great memoirs implicitly tackle the subject of identity, weaving together a cohesive self from a jumble of experiences, influences and, yes, imperfect memories. But what propels authors to write a memoir, and what compels us to read them? Join three masters of award-winning and best-selling works who dared such examination and reflection as they discuss the risks and rewards of writing a memoir.
- 2019 Festival
- Arts
Why write a memoir?
Publishing a memoir means sharing deeply personal stories for anyone to read. Sure, memoirists get to choose what they write, but it usually takes a pretty compelling story to make it on bookshelves. So why would anyone share stories that could bring all sorts of scrutiny to not just their lives, but the lives of people close to them? Writer Richard Blanco explains:
Memoirs allow artists to discover things about themselves. Some confront childhood trauma, others broken relationships or newfound joy. But Blanco says the act of writing, rewriting, and codifying those feelings in a text helps bring clarity and closure.
Seek honesty, not truth
Our memories are fickle at best, and if you ask two people to describe the same event you’ll always get different versions. Author Kiese Laymon says that when readers approach memoirs expecting hard facts, they’re bound to be let down. Instead of some quixotic pursuit of truthfulness, Laymon explains that he strives for honesty and integrity in his writing:
“It hurts when your version of truth collides with somebody else’s version of truth,” says Laymon. By transcending a strict adherence to truth, memoirists can write a story that, in some ways, more honestly reflects a situation than an attempt at truthfulness ever could.
Is there a ‘greater good’ for memoirists?
Do memoirists think of the impact that their stories might have? When they’re writing a work, do they think of how it will be received and what good might come of it? In response to an audience member wondering what kind of thought goes into impact, the whole panel weighs in:
This excerpt has been lightly edited for clarity
-
Dani Shapiro: If I was sitting down to write thinking I was going to help people, I wouldn’t write as well… I’m trying to connect with people. This new book of mine is helping people, but as I was writing it, I was trying to tell the story and trying to place the story in a larger context. So there’s an extraordinary experience in realizing there’s a purpose to it, but a self-consciousness can set in if a writer sits down to think, ‘Now I’m going to sit down to help people.’
-
Richard Blanco: I think ‘connect’ is the perfect word.. and when those moments happen it’s great, but that’s not what keeps us writing per se. It is, though, just knowing and trusting that your honesty and life will be a mirror to someone else. That’s why we do what we do, but not consciously
-
Erika Mallin: [to Laymon] But do you feel that way?
-
Kiese Laymon: I definitely feel like it’s for a greater good… The act of writing books to [James] Baldwin, to my mother, to Margo Walker Alexander, is a liberatory act because I was aggressively taught not to see those people as audience to whom I could write. Your audience sort of dictates, I think, the integrity and calibrations of your art. So I’m definitely trying to write to black folks in the deep south, I’m trying to write for black folks in the deep south, with an understanding that people outside the deep south will take part in it. But I know who my primary audience is.
Hear for yourself: author readings
There’s something about hearing an author’s work in their own voice than can bring a whole new meaning to a story. Hear Kiese Laymon, Dani Shapiro, and Richard Blanco read excerpts from their own works:
Learn More
Additional Information
Explore More
Arts
![Chasing Hope](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/2f55539f-2197-464f-8b26-2929b02cf707/53824051485_57d377543e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1613%2C0%2C2576%2C3864&w=400)
As one of the foremost reporters of his generation, Nicholas Kristof has been witness to century-defining events and atrocities around the world. How has he managed to weaponi...
![Closing Session](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/48047a1f-d980-4abf-ae89-bfbd1c8bc246/53824584793_ab831623a7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C160%2C3200%2C1800&w=400)
![The Secret of Making Hits](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/008361bf-2540-4a00-8e1f-69739f370ce8/53822660989_e5265f0505_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=1%2C307%2C5880%2C3308&w=400)
Amid seismic shifts in the entertainment world, Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Brian Grazer has managed to keep pivoting to new ways to tell stories in movies, TV and...
![Guerrilla Creativity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/24e08eb1-8bb0-4970-9930-a617d58c5f32/53821275967_e65a66da2d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C185%2C5493%2C3090&w=400)
In the last 30 years, conglomerates from Amazon to Netflix to Spotify have changed the way we interact with media, books, fashion and music. Creatives are struggling to mainta...
![What Images Teach About Racial Justice](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b952ab2d-c640-4a57-8279-6c7d03238fb9/53820187272_5aeee651ba_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1292%2C0%2C2067%2C3100&w=400)
Images communicate truths, and also lies. Learning to pay attention to photographs can help us discern. An art and cultural historian and a visual artist host a master class o...
![Vagabond of Song](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/7eea29da-ea74-4516-b211-776d628c7f8a/53821145355_6b0d6d5891_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C311%2C5975%2C3361&w=400)
Hurray for the Riff Raff is more than Alynda Segarra’s musical moniker; they spent their youth hopping trains across America, capturing that life in youthful poetry then and a...
![Creativity in Confinement](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/5817dd14-bfd6-49b1-b658-02ccfd2bfa4d/common.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
When people in prison are given creative outlets, the impact is life-changing. Hear from a hip-hop artist setting up prison recording studios, an architect designing more huma...
![Julia Louis-Dreyfus Talks Easy with Sam Fragoso (podcast recording)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/1c8e8da8-5413-4723-a7ab-21a749e85606/53820905095_26da4c7347_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
Whether as Elaine Benes from “Seinfeld” or Selina Meyer from “Veep,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus delivers laughter. But in the upcoming film “Tuesday,” she communicates with death — i...
![Echoes of Time in Type](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a0a8f949-e84c-4dd4-90fa-fa22b81a0f3d/53819113811_fa4c876577_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1292%2C0%2C2067%2C3100&w=400)
You may not know what typeface this sentence is written in, but typography is crucial to how we convey, process and retain information. How has the form evolved? Hear from des...
![Raised by Hollywood](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f4cbcde9-0ecf-4991-87f1-04612ce76564/53815514942_0719f738aa_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C5888%2C3313&w=400)
Maybe all of us feel like we’ve been raised by Hollywood, but being raised in Hollywood is a different kind of drama. Actor, producer and director Griffin Dunne joins friend (...
![A Radical Vision: Art for All in America](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/0a7e8ded-eaa5-45ff-b952-de3caf6a17cf/radicalvision.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C312%2C6000%2C3375&w=400)
Here’s a radical proposal: Make access to the arts free for everyone. Leaders on a mission to bring Americans into art spaces discuss the transformative power of the arts, and...
![The Real Women of Shakespeare’s England](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/cc44397d-a3af-4329-8c45-4925b95839ef/53816971471_9beb512833_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Rosalind, Viola, Portia and Beatrice are unforgettable roles in Shakespeare’s plays. But there were real women behind these characters — women who spoke out against patriarchy...
![The Architecture of Social Division](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6b33d4ba-e714-4570-bb8d-f66138b7cd51/53817140325_6d82dc2ecf_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=2293%2C0%2C3669%2C5503&w=400)
Architecture doesn’t just build edifices; it shapes societies. Even as transportation infrastructure creates and locks in racial inequality, there is hope that intentional des...
![Read with Jenna](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/7e0f72c3-1d78-4fe3-8ae5-178acf0904d7/53814494128_dbe2df981d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1204%2C5504%2C3096&w=400)
Join NBC's Jenna Bush Hager as she discusses her Read With Jenna July book club selection with its New York Times bestselling author. Explore the epic love story and thriller,...
![Shakespeare and Politics: Why the Bard is More Relevant Than Ever](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/c2a75e6e-edd0-4276-b2b5-67ff3ba42e15/shakespeare.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C485%2C4651%2C2616&w=400)
Shakespeare's plays, rich with political intrigue, power struggles and ethical dilemmas, provide profound commentary on the nature of governance and leadership — and draw unse...
![Six Hours to Save Democracy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f9a5a299-b406-461f-9560-4ece89e6df9e/53814692080_d97793c5e7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=4%2C0%2C8248%2C4640&w=400)
What if the threat to American democracy came from within our own military? “War Game,” a 2024 Sundance Official Selection documentary, imagined just such a scenario and conve...
![The Real Sam Bankman-Fried](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/fb579423-81c1-4f3a-b214-6efb3e49eb06/53814171264_9e7a34fcb6_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1516%2C0%2C2091%2C3136&w=400)
In the aftermath of the sentencing of disgraced FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, celebrated author Michael Lewis shares new insights about the spectacular downfall of SBF, whom he s...
![Voices of Change: Reinventing Women in Opera](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/090ca886-f972-472b-b4be-4c59a8eab162/53814263871_3fc55d20e4_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1204%2C5504%2C3096&w=400)
In the dynamic evolution of opera, women are playing pivotal roles not only as performers but as composers and opera house leaders. These remarkable women are breaking barrier...
![An Evening of Serious Hope](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/82958799-fb36-4154-a7d1-1e738bc29afe/53811013922_3ab94aea21_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
In a world on fire, many of us feel starved for hope. Join the president of Juilliard, America’s leading soprano, an Oscar-winning director and composer, and the former mayor...
![Aspen Ideas: Health Closing Session](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/43030c8f-3f87-43e9-a2a1-f35ca0aab1c1/240623_closing_010.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C43%2C4000%2C2250&w=400)
Featuring inspiring conversations, the closing session is not to be missed. First, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Jennifer Ashton of ABC News explore the loneliness epi...