Name: Beyond Memory: Mining the Past for Your Memoir
Start: 2027-01-16T10:15:00-0500
End: 2027-01-16T11:15:00-0500

Beyond Memory: Mining the Past for Your Memoir

Saturday January 16, 2027 10:15am - 11:15am EST

TBA

A memoir built only from memory can only go so far— the richest ones often draw on far more. This session brings real reporting skills to the memoir-writing process: how to research your own past the way you'd research a story, ask the right questions of family members (even difficult ones), and track down old letters, photos, and records that memory alone can't provide. We'll discuss how to draw on documents, interviews, and resources alongside your own recollections, and how to shape found material into a narrative. How do you cross-check memory against fact, and how do you know when to trust what you remember versus when to dig deeper? You'll leave with a journalist's toolkit for building a memoir that goes beyond simply recounting the past to investigating it.

Speakers

Mathew Rodriguez

TOUGH GUY, Author

Mathew Rodriguez is a Brooklyn-based writer whose debut memoir 'Tough Guy' is coming out in January from Abrams Books. He teaches writing and journalism at New York University and the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. He has been a senior editor at The Atlantic and his... Read More →

Alysia Abbott

FAIRYLAND, A MEMOIR OF MY FATHER, Author

Alysia Abbott is the author of Fairyland, A Memoir of My Father, which was a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice, an ALA Stonewall Award winner, a winner of the Madame Figaro Prix Heroine, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards. She is a recipient of grants and fellowships from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Ragdale, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts... Read More →

Saturday January 16, 2027 10:15am - 11:15am EST
TBA

Track 1: Deep Craft

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Mathew Rodriguez

Alysia Abbott

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TBR 2027

Mathew Rodriguez

Alysia Abbott

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