How can poetic techniques help memoirists tell the truth as accurately as possible? While some writers argue that fixating on facts contradicts the aims of art, I believe that facts—as best we can access them—can further the artistry of nonfiction, serving as formal constraints. Of course memory fails and self-deception exists, but memoirists are less likely to get to the experiential and emotional truths by deliberately inventing details.
Poetic techniques can help us fasten passages together that resist the cause-and-effect relationship popularized by Western notions of plot. This session is tailored to memoir writing and will include close readings, discussion, generative prompts, and Q&A.
JEANNIE VANASCO is the author of the memoirs Things We Didn’t Talk About When I Was a Girl—which was named a New York Times Editors' Choice and a best book of 2019 by TIME, Esquire, Kirkus, among others—and The Glass Eye, which Poets & Writers called one of the five best literary nonfiction debuts of 2017. Her third book, A Silent Treatment, will was published in September 2025. Born and raised in Sandusky, Ohio, she lives in Baltimore and is an associate professor of English at Towson University.
