Jennifer Jordán Schaller interviews Gregory Martin — I have known the author Gregory Martin for almost twenty years. I took a workshop with him when I was an undergraduate at the University of New Mexico. He was the first teacher who told me I should go to grad school. I was twenty-three. I thought graduate school was…

The picture above, Charity, by French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, illustrates what it means for me to be a mom, teacher, and writer. I have all these little creatures I help sustain: not just my children or my family, but also my creative self. To play these different roles, I have…

Thus far in my writing career, I have gathered lots of wisdom. For example, a writer is a person who writes. You’re welcome. That pearl was free. Here’s another: a successful writer is a person whose writing is read. Basic, simple things. Now that I have this knowledge, the question…

I have this problem. You could call it peculiar. I have anxiety attacks while plotting my manuscript. Sometimes I fear I will not be able to engage a reader for 180 pages, and the thought of someone putting my book down, forever in disgust, feels like a terrible first date…

By Jennifer Jordán Schaller — When I was a six-year-old child, it was the eighties. I sometimes stayed overnight with my Grandma Virginia in the South Bronx. My Grandma Virginia only spoke English when she talked to people like me, people who can’t speak Spanish. I remember walking with my little, gray-haired grandmother one cold…

Do you enjoy pain? You must. Investing so much time in a piece of writing — why work to the point that you start questioning yourself? Then you wonder not only if you enjoy the feel of flogging yourself, but also if anyone wants to read the story you’ve been…

Are you having trouble writing the third version of your memoir? Have you been told that your story of overcoming structuralized inequity is cliché? Memoirs have been disgorged by virtually every­one: survivors, thrivers, depressed people, addicted people, impoverished people, weight loss advocates; anyone who has ever taught an underprivileged child…

We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth. — Pablo Picasso The above painting by Pablo Picasso, coupled with the quote above, help me think about the relationship between the art of memoir and truth. What is a painting beyond…

No crude collection of cold facts has ever once told a story all on its own. Every story, be it fiction or non-fiction, must be found among the facts and then be shaped from them. — Madison Smartt Bell Structure has been the most elusive craft feature for me. I…