Zoom with this rising literary star tomorrow
And these are the memoirs we're reading in July and August
For those of you who didn’t get the memo for our June selection, my bad! Instagram @ Memoir_ing is where I’ve been lazily dropping news. You can always check there!
OUR JUNE SELECTION
We’ve been reading Sink: A Memoir (2022) by Joseph Earl Thomas and he’s joining us tomorrow Monday, July 8 at 6:30pm ET.
Sign up to Zoom with us now! Registration is 100 percent free for Subscribers to this newsletter, which is also free. For now.
On Monday evening, we’ll be talking with the author about:
Writing a memoir in the third person (instead of going the fiction route)
Incorporating multiple perspectives — not just his
Shame, sex, and bullying
And any of your content or craft questions for Joseph!
Sink, longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, is a captivating rendering of boyhood, set amid abuse and poverty, with a voice you haven’t heard on the page yet. Within the few spaces granted to him, Joey finds solace and selfhood in video games (check out Thomas’s recent Paris Review piece on Pokéman and reading), as well as caring for animals. He literally has a pet alligator in his Philly backyard.
The language is gorgeous, but it’s not an easy read: Thomas shows us “how lessons of toxic masculinity were drilled into his body” (book copy) and cockroaches dropped into his cereal bowl, as if taunting his persistent hunger. But for all the gut punches, Sink is also at times incredibly humorous, and we root for young Joey, whose story is told in the third person throughout.
As emotionally rough as this coming-of-age story can be, “most remarkable is Thomas’s matter of fact depiction of the daily depredations he faced without losing his spirit or his abundant creative gifts,” says the New York Times.
I led a Writing Workshop and Memoiring Panel at the Deep Water Literary Festival!
Two weeks ago, at the Deepwater Literary Festival, Memoiring and I (the royal we) had the incredible opportunity to lead a memoir panel with Joseph Earl Thomas and artist/debut memoirist, Hyeseung Song, author of Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl (launching 7/16).
This was Memoiring’s first IRL author convo—and definitely won’t be the last.
Thank you to everyone who came, asked such great questions, and stuck around to chat. I’m excited to welcome a handful of you here on Substack for the first time!
I’m happy to tell you all about my writing workshops soon! (Hit me up on DM or in the Comments, if you need support for your writing ASAP.)
WHAT WE’RE READING IN JULY AND AUGUST…
July: I'm Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself: One Woman's Pursuit of Pleasure in Paris by Glynnis MacNicol. (Folks, I need a beach read, and this memoir looks to fit the bill!)
August: Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl by Hyeseung Song (launching 7/16). Book blurb: For readers of Crying in H Mart and Minor Feelings as well as lovers of the film Minari comes a searing coming-of-age memoir about the daughter of ambitious Asian American immigrants and her search for self-worth. Pre-order it now and we’ll read it in August!
Have a great summer — and tell us what you want to read in the fall (aka Memoiring’s first birthday!) Use the Comments, so others can second your picks. I’d love to hear what’s catching your attention.
I’ll be letting you know about Zoom dates soon. Keep your eye on Instagram @ Memoir_ing for those details!
Memoiringly yours, Melisse
I read a wonderful and unusually structured memoir by Maggie O'Farrell (author of Hamnet and other novels), entitled "I Am, I Am, I Am."