SUE WILLIAM SILVERMAN (SWS): What most distresses me is when memoirs, especially those written by women, are labeled “confessional.” In effect, these critics are implying that women’s memoirs are nothing more than navel gazing, that they have no literary merit. Which criticism distresses you most, and why? Which do you think may, in fact, hold at least some validity for memoir writers to consider as they craft their work? She is also the author of Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction (made into a Lifetime TV movie), and Hieroglyphics in Neon, a collection of poems.ĮRIKA DREIFUS (ED): In this book, you offer what may be most appropriately described as a “fearless” defense of memoir, taking on several of the criticisms that have been leveled at the genre in recent years. Her first book, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You, received the AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction.
Sue is a faculty advisor at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and the associate editor of the journal Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction. Remember when I told you I’d read Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir while I was on vacation? Well, that reading helped me frame interview questions for the book’s author, Sue William Silverman, who joins us on the blog today for some Q&A.
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