January's Memoiring Pick is Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow + Two Book Clubs This Month

We meet this week to discuss the epic pairing of Britney Spears and Annie Ernaux. Author Kat Chow joins us later this month to discuss her NYT notable memoir. And more!

Hello Memoiring Folks + Family! 

If you’ve got a calendar you know it’s 2024. My brain is still in September 2023, however. I tried to use the holiday to reconcile just why that is and take stock of the year. Stock-taking is something I’m super, super sh*tty at. But stick around after the must-read MEMOIRING news, if you want to know what this literary Capricorn did this year. (Or see how I turned what was supposed to be gratitude into a list of accomplishments. There’s no hope for me.)

IN MEMOIRING NEWS…huge thanks to everyone—and to the amazing Melissa Febos—who joined us for the Memoiring Book Club convo back in December. About 25 Memoiring members (Mem-mems?) Zoomed in, our largest gathering yet. Based on my knowledge of the attendees and the craft-focused questions they had for Melissa, I’m going to go on the record and say about 90 percent of you are creative nonfiction writers, too. A number that’s only grown since last fall.

I’m going to continue to invite memoir authors to join us for book club convos whenever possible because a) we’re obviously loving their presence, b) we’re getting tons of BTS (behind the scenes) info on their creative intention, craft, and life, and c) this is generally super interesting and valuable for us creative nonfiction-loving folks. Agree? Let me know how that sounds to you in the Comments, below!

Some of you have asked me, Where and when am I announcing the books and the dates for our book club ? Answer: On Instagram first and Substack Chat! If you’re not following @Memoir_ing or using Chat, you might have wait until I get my act together to post here. Which is exactly what I’m doing now:

Our January Memoiring Selection is…

SEEING GHOSTS: A MEMOIR by Kat Chow. A New York Times Notable Book.

With a distinct voice that is wry and beautiful, Atlantic contributor and former NPR reporter Kat Chow weaves together what is part ghost story and part excavation of her family’s history of loss spanning three generations. This coming-of-age story uncovers uncanny parallels in Kat’s lineage, and the complicated duty of looking after parents, even after death. SEEING GHOSTS asks what it means to tell your family’s story: Is writing an exorcism or is it its own form of preservation?

Here’s an excerpt:

"I haven't wanted to kill you, so I haven't written about your passing. I can write around your death. I can write about the events that inch up to it, and the ones that illuminate its aftermath. But ask me to write about the day itself, and I can't. I can't. I can't. It's like killing you. I want to keep you, in memory, alive.

But since this is about losing you, I need to try." —Kat Chow

Who’s got chills??? Grab a copy and read with us this month (and all year long).

BOOK CLUB DATES

Giving you value for the money folks, there are TWO Memoiring book clubs/Zoom get-togethers in January: 

This Wednesday, January 10 @ 7pm ET, we're chatting our December Picks: Britney Spears THE WOMAN IN ME (audiobook read by actor Michelle Williams) and Annie Ernaux’s novella-length memoir, HAPPENING, about her illegal abortion in France when she was 24. Unfortunately neither Britney or Nobel-winner Ernaux are available to join to us…but I hope you’ll forgive them and still come on Wednesday. Register to Zoom with us here.

On Monday, January 29 at 6pm ET, Kat Chow, author of our January pick SEEING GHOSTS: A MEMOIR, and a contributing writer at The Atlantic and former NPR reporter, is joining us for book club! I’ve been wanting to read her book since it dropped in 2021, and I can’t wait to discuss it with her—and you. Register to Zoom with us here.

Remember MEMOIRING Book Clubs are FREE. You buy or borrow your own books and come with questions for us all to discuss. You’ve gotta be a Substack subscriber of MEMOIRING to join, and Zoom authentication is required, so plan to RSVP early, and jump on 5 minutes early to make sure you’re registered. 

Taking Stock

And folks, I’m lousy at taking stock of a year and great at blowing past milestones en route to the next one. (#Capricorn). But I fully endorse the practice for others. Here’s me taking a stab at it myself: 

I launched the Memoiring Book Club community and newsletter this fall and it’s already it’s made a huge difference in my reading, writing, and thinking life. I hope it’s done the same for you in even the smallest of ways. Tell me how in the Comments??

I wrote a draft of my MFA thesis (sometimes while crying—totally normal, I hear). 

I introduced author Dani Shapiro for a talk she gave at Sarah Lawrence College about “the unthought known,” or the presence of the writer’s unconscious and how it appears in memoir. The unconscious and memoir are my literary peanut butter and chocolate, two of my favorite things that taste great together. 

I published a flash memoir piece in Electric Literature this summer about a strange job I had as a kid in the ‘80s involving fish in a barrel—and my mother. #becausememoirist

I taught a flash memoir workshop at the Deep Water Literary Festival that 17 kind people attended, and I’m thinking about offering more via Zoom.

I workshopped three dozen brilliant pieces by my peers that I hope everyone gets to read someday. 

And I read 63 books, according to GoodReads—which, yes, is like a Fitbit of book-tracking, with a circa 2004 interface. But it’s where I log my TBR. For now. (As we know, it’s a far from perfect platform thanks to pieces like this and this. Ditto THIS platform, which has me figuring when and how how to migrate off.) Upon close inspection of my 2023 reading habits, it appears I read in three genres in almost equal amounts, plus a splash of craft books: 34 percent memoir, 30 percent literary fiction, and 33 percent upmarket fiction about witches—a fantasy subgenre I’m just going to say took me by surprise. (But seriously, if you liked “Once and Future Witches” and “Weyward,” tell me what else you’re reading ASAP.) 

Last but not least, it’s not too late to preorder Abortion Trading Cards, a handmade deck which supports super-talented Brooklyn artist Alexandra Jamieson *and* reproductive freedom. 

Thanks for reading and Memoiring! See you on Zoom very soon, Melisse