Memoir: It’s All in the Writing

With its latest issue (v3 n1), Memoir (and) welcomes Claudia Sternbach as the new Editorial Board Chair. Sternbach wastes no time in tackling the identity of the memoir genre in her introductory note, in which she recounts a “well-known” author’s comment that “unless you have lived an extraordinary life, there is no point in writing about it.” Sternbach’s response? “Balderdash.” Recounting extraordinary exploits can be interesting, she goes on, as long as they are well written, “But no more interesting than an exquisitely told story of aging, or of spending years in pursuit of a perfect smile. It is all in the writing.”