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“Faliveno is an excellent essayist, expertly braiding seemingly disparate threads into engrossing and funny explorations of self and society…The theme of violence intertwined with fear, love and reverence for place and created family propels Tomboyland into captivating territory. On the surface, its beautiful prose belies the darker complexities it scrapes at, making it all the more gratifying to read.” —The Washington Post
“Krys Malcolm Belc’s singular memoir-in-essays traces how his experiences conceiving, birthing, and breastfeeding a child helped to clarify his gender identity . . . ‘motherhood’ doesn’t describe Belc’s own experience of pregnancy and parenting. The Natural Mother of the Child attempts to bridge that gap, offering an alternative interpretation of what it means to grow a family.” —Keely Weiss, Harper’s Bazaar, A Best LGBT Book of the Year
In July, we’ll be joined by essayists Krys Malcolm Belc and Melissa Faliveno to discuss the craft of writing personal essays through the lens of their essay collections.
The personal essay is a form that requires vulnerability, research, meaning-making, and perspective from writers. It can be daunting for many, but the urge to tell our stories and to share them – in a way that not only informs the world of our experiences and where we’ve come from, but of what it all means and where we might go from here – is one that keeps the essay form alive and ever-changing.
For our July Third Thursday, we’ll explore all of this and more with two accomplished essayists – Krys Malcolm Belc and Melissa Faliveno – by discussing their approaches to essay writing and how they’ve accomplished telling their stories in essays. Whether you’re an essayist or a memoirist or both, this conversation will delve into what it takes to write from personal experience and how to make meaning out of it all.
If you have questions about the craft of writing personal essays, please consider sharing them with us ahead of time – you can fill out this simple Google form. We’ll also leave time for questions during the event.
We’re encouraging all attendees to read one essay by each of our featured authors. These essays are excerpts from their collections will be referenced during the conversation. Here are links to “The Landscape That Made Me” by Melissa Faliveno and “The Natural Mother of the Child” by Krys Malcom Belc.
Buy our panelists books and support indie bookstores! You can find our July Third Thursday booklist here.
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