🎙 INTERVIEW: Writing the Self: The Art of Memoir with Melissa Febos
​** This is a LIVE interview with author Melissa Febos about the craft of writing and reality of building a writing career. Attendees will be sent a recording after the interview. **
​How do we write truthfully about personal transformation and self-reckoning? What does it mean to balance memory, research, and storytelling in memoir?
​Melissa Febos is one of today’s most celebrated voices in creative nonfiction—a writer who explores the intersections of identity, desire, and truth. From her acclaimed debut Whip Smart and her lyric essays in Abandon Me to the essay collection Girlhood and the craft-focused Body Work, Febos has consistently reshaped what we think of writing personal stories.Â
​Her latest book, The Dry Seaon, blends intimate personal narrative and incisive cultural criticism, examining the solitude, freedoms, and feminist heroes Febos discovered during a year of celibacy.
​Join us for a conversation with Melissa as we explore The Dry Season, the alchemy of personal experience and literary craft, and how to turn the raw material of life into art.
​We’ll also explore:
​Writing honestly about personal transformation
​How Melissa’s voice and approach have evolved across her books
​The role of research in memoir and essay writing
​The emotional and artistic power of writing the self
​Pushing past fear and self-doubt in personal narrative
​About Melissa FebosÂ
​MELISSA FEBOS is the nationally bestselling author of four books, including Girlhood—which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative. She has been awarded prizes and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, LAMBDA Literary, the National Endowment for the Arts, the British Library, the Black Mountain Institute, the Bogliasco Foundation, and others. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Essays, Vogue, The Sewanee Review, New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. Febos is a full professor at the University of Iowa and lives in Iowa City with her wife, the poet Donika Kelly.Â
​Your London Writers' Salon Hosts:
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​Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti are the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, creators of the webby-nominated Writers' Hour daily writing sessions, and hosts of the London Writers' Salon podcast.
​Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to running LWS she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She writes and edits for the Story Grid. She has worked as an editor and literary scout at Random House, Quercus & Eccles Fisher. She analyses TV hit shows (Killing Eve, Ozark, Game of Thrones) on the Story Grid Showrunners Podcast.
​Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and facilitator. In addition to running LWS, Matt designs programs to help unfulfilled professionals pursue creative work, start businesses, and reinvent their careers. Matt's work has appeared in Quartz, Observer, Creative Mornings, and on his blog GiveLiveExplore.
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