Notes from the Writer's Corner

A sublime conversation with author Christie Tate, words to inspire, and next week's guest (it's a good one!).

This was a special week in The Writer’s Corner. Anyone who has taken a class with me knows how much I admire Christie Tate’s work. Such a treat to pick her brain! As always, she didn’t disappoint! If you write memoir or personal essay (or think you may want to in the future), you don’t want to miss this session. A few key points:
• Why what we resist is often where our best material lies.
• How granular detail can transform your writing.
• How to believe in the story that is calling you.
• And so much more!

Here is a link to the recording (Passcode: *#7q@6Sy).

If you don’t already follow Christie’s Substack, what are you waiting for? Here’s a link:

Christie Tate

(it’s so good!) and visit www.christietate.com to learn more about her work.

---

Words to inspire …

In my classes this week, we talked about the importance of “digging deeper” when we write. To think on this theme, we studied three quotes from The Art of Memoir by Mary Carr …

“If I wrote vaguely enough, I risked nothing.” 

“Every time I picked up a pen, this grinding, unnamed fear overcame me—later identified as fear that my real self would spill out.” 

“What I wanted to write kept simmering up while I wrote down everything but that.”

The lesson: Be authentic. Be brave. Tell your truths. Believe in your stories. Write.🖤

---

Next week …

February 10 at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m.
Joanna Rakoff for a Discussion on Craft
Joanna Rakoff is the author of the international bestselling memoir My Salinger Year and the bestselling novel A Fortunate Age, winner of the Goldberg Prize for Fiction and the Elle Readers’ Prize. Rakoff’s books have been translated into twenty languages, and the film adaptation of My Salinger Year opened in theaters worldwide in 2021 and is now streaming. She has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies from MacDowell, Sewanee, Bread Loaf, Jerome Foundation, Authors’ Guild, PEN, Ragdale Foundation, Art OMI/Ledig House, and Saltonstall; and has taught at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, and Aspen Words. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, O: The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, Elle, Porter, and elsewhere, and her new memoir, The Fifth Passenger, is forthcoming from Little, Brown in 2024.

The film adaptation of My Salinger Year stars Margaret Qualley as Joanna and Sigourney Weaver as her boss. Directed by Oscar-nominee Philippe Falardeau, the film opened in sixty-five countries in 2021, and is available for streaming.