The practice of employing metaphor and image and composition and linguistic choices to move the reader through the content.
Lidia YuknavitchToo, some of my teachers helped me to navigate those books, showed me the maps and paths and secret decoder rings - people like Linda Kintz and Forest Pyle and Mary Wood and Diana Abu Jaber. They didn't treat me like a messy writer girl in combat boots who had infiltrated the smart people room. They treated me like I deserved to be there, potty mouth and all, they helped make a space for me to rage and ride my own intellect. That's why I'm saying their names out loud.
Lidia YuknavitchI get kind of tired of the "But it's your life!" attitude about memoir. I wrote. I engaged in artistic production. I made a piece of art. Why the preciousness or mystical unicorns around "memoir"? I'm curious how you feel about it just now.
Lidia YuknavitchUnderneath the forms of fiction and poetry, you can bet your ass the ground comes from someone's actual life experience.
Lidia Yuknavitch