Life Story Links: March 29, 2022
“Face-to-face conversation is the most human—and humanizing—thing we do. Fully present to one another, we learn to listen. It’s where we develop the capacity for empathy. It’s where we experience the joy of being heard, of being understood. And conversation advances self-reflection…”
—Sherry Turkle
Vintage photo of Washington Senators coach Nick Altrock with Dot Meloy, who, according to the original caption, was in training as a side line entertainer; 1920. Photograph from the National Photo Company Collection, courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
Writing our truths
A WRITER’S WHY
In conversation about her memoir in essays Bomb Shelter, Mary Laura Philpott says, “My hope was to do what many other books have done for me, which is to tell one person’s story in a way that makes other people look at their own lives differently or perhaps understand something about themselves better.”
WIDENING HIS LENS
“My life is too boring for a memoir,” Fintan O’Toole writes in the afterword to his new book We Don’t Know Ourselves—so he instead turned his attention to the personal history of Ireland.
EXPLORING YOUR OWN TRAUMA
Melissa Febos, associate professor in the nonfiction writing program at University of Iowa and author of the new memoir, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, offers up guidance to other aspiring writers on how to begin their journey—including, of course, the hard stuff:
FROM A WRITING TEACHER
“I engage with personal narrative as a contribution to a bigger political or cultural conversation that puts human beings front and center,” memoirist Meghan Stielstra tells the hosts of Everything Is Fine podcast. Fast-forward to the 7:45-minute mark to get right to their conversation, which includes discussion of narrative distance, giving and accepting criticism, and the creative writing practice:
Not just preservation, but curation
WHAT’S NOT REPRESENTED
“Of the 270,000 photographs commissioned by the U.S. Farm Security Administration to document the Great Depression, more than a third were ‘killed.’ Erica X. Eisen examines the history behind this hole-punched archive and the unknowable void at its center.”
PROTECT YOUR PHOTO LEGACY
“It'll happen to all of us someday: We'll be gone, but our data will persist.” Wired magazine takes a look at how to leave your photos to someone when you die.
“WE ARE HISTORY”
“Am I only the sum of all the things that I have collected? And if so, shouldn’t I declare it proudly?” Questlove ponders in this opinion piece on his lifelong collection of music and cultural artifacts.
Physical manifestations of memory
LEGACY LIST TIME
Making a legacy list is a powerful way to identify which family items are worth passing on—and as long as the stories of those heirlooms are preserved, the list becomes a de facto cheat sheet to your family history.
PREHISTORIC MEMENTOS
“Just like us, our early ancestors attached great importance to old artifacts, preserving them as significant memory objects—a bond with older worlds and important places in the landscape."
WRITTEN BY HAND
“I apologize to those who will have to deal with my boxes of letters and cards some day in the future. You have my permission to dispose of them, light a bonfire, or make a book out of the ones that are important to you.”
Sacred storytelling
“OUR JOB IS TO LOVE THE WORLD”
“So that’s the question, I guess, for you and for me and for all of us trying to do this sacred task of telling stories for the young: How do we tell the truth and make that truth bearable?” Krista Tippett shares a thoughtful letter from author Kate DiCamillo.
HONORING THEIR FOREMOTHERS
“To this day, I do not know which story is more amazing—the yearlong conversations I had with my aunt, who spent her last days sharing the stories of our ancestors, or the actual stories she had told.”
GILDED HISTORY
A young writer delves into his family’s past life in Vienna after his 95-year-old grandmother passed on her unpublished memoir—he finds tragedy, but hope, as well.
“READ ME. TAKE MY HAND.”
“Have we learned our lesson yet? About embodiment? About stories? Our need for connection in order to tell them? Our need for a usable past?” Diane Seuss’s advice for life as a writer.
OPPORTUNITY FOR STORY SHARING
My favorite part of this piece about how to make family reunions more meaningful: the recommendation that all family storytelling that takes place be “just the beginning.”
Miscellaneous
RECOMMENDED FIRST-PERSON READ
“The stars were infinite. The men were always liquid. The moms—choking on anger at idiot men—were our saviors, our solidity and happiness.” Samantha Hunt on being marked by addiction.
NYC HISTORY, UNLOCKED
A new online platform gives free access to 9.3 million historical NYC records. Time Out New York shares the details of how to access the Municipal Archives and links to tips for how to best search them.
RE-HUMANIZING PEOPLE
“I think genealogy is a tool for being able to achieve healing, because we have to go back into the past. And when you reconnect those pieces that were corrupted because of slavery, that is a way forward.”
...and a few more links
Bruce Springsteen unveils new exhibition space for archives in his hometown, Freehold, New Jersey.
Ways that creative nonfiction writers can borrow from acting techniques
Salt Lake City–based personal historian Elizabeth Thomas reviews the memoir London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency by Kate MacDougall.
“A 50-year-old graphic biography of Che Guevara that still feels fresh” has been translated into English.
She discovered what happened to 400 Dutch Jews who disappeared.
Consumer Reports on how you can preserve family memories for generations to come
New cooking museum in Rome invites visitors to feast with their eyes.
British Air Force veteran’s childhood memories featured in exhibition
Congrats to San Antonio–based legacy filmmaker Clinton Haby for garnering attention in this newspaper in the Alsace region of France.
Read an essay adapted from Melissa Febos’s newest book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative.
Short Takes
