Life Story Links: January 23, 2024

“I started to believe that writing is humanity distilled into ink.”
—Diana Chao

Vintage poster with original artwork by Anthony Velonis produced by the Work Projects Administration circa 1939; image courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Digital Collection. The posters were designed to publicize exhibits, community activities, theatrical productions, and health and educational programs in seventeen states and the District of Columbia between 1936 to 1943.

On preservation, life stories, and legacy

OVERSHARERS ANONYMOUS
“Writing is how I understand life,” bestselling memoirist Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I know About Love, says. And yet, she swears she’ll never write another book about herself.

CAN OUR ARCHIVES HELP US REMEMBER BETTER?
“But how exactly does documenting our lives impact how we live and remember them?” Listen in to a robust conversation about the gaps in how we record things and how we remember them, from The Atlantic:

HOW WILL YOU BE REMEMBERED?
“When we think in terms of legacy, we’re really trying to use our imagination to think far beyond our own individual existence.” Katherine Kam on how to adopt a legacy mindset.

FAMILY SECRETS, REVEALED
Recent advice from the NYT Ethicist columnist—about the burden of newly discovered genealogy information from a DNA test—is being hotly debated in the comments (more than 500 to date). Dig in for some fascinating back-and-forth.

Remembering those who have gone

KEEPING MEMORIES ALIVE
This young Irish entrepreneur uses gravestone plaques with QR codes to help families celebrate the memory of their lost loved ones (even pets).

GENEROSITY IN GRIEF
A single short conversation with one of my clients revealed a few truths that I have witnessed over and over again during my years creating books to memorialize our lost loved ones.

“MEMORY’S COMPOUND OF EMBELLISHMENT AND REALITY”
Robert Glück’s About Ed—which draws on the subject’s notes, audio clips, diaries, and dream journals—“is a literary monument that harnesses memoir’s emotional honesty while indulging fiction’s stylistic latitude,” writes a reviewer.