memoir
Going offline to preserve the precious resource of attention
Yes, it's another year-of narrative. But Esther Emery offers a moving story about the possibility of change.
Dying—and living—with breast cancer
Nina Riggs's love of the world shines through her memoir, even as the ground shifts beneath her.
by LaVonne Neff
The personal is political—and universal—for Carter Heyward
Heyward was one of the first women priests. But her particular experiences aren't the heart of her memoir.
by Amy Frykholm
Refugee, poet, father
Kao Kalia Yang’s memoir of her family’s flight from Laos is devastating and lyrical.
The hero of Trevor Noah’s story
If you think the Daily Show host is funny, you should meet his mother.
by LaVonne Neff
Macy Halford’s two worlds
A New Yorker staffer investigates the evangelical book that will not let her go.
Pathologically moral
In her memoir, comedian Maggie Rowe lays bare a struggle with excessive guilt that rivals Martin Luther’s.
by Ted Peters
When theology fails
After Ruth Everhart was raped, she had to rebuild her beliefs about God’s will.
Inventing a voice for Louis Till
John Edgar Wideman counters the official record of Emmett Till’s father with a more empathetic version.
by Amy Frykholm
A do-gooder’s tale
D. L. Mayfield wanted to help Somali refugees. She ended up mostly baking them cupcakes.
Vulnerability and readability
Do women have to trade intimacy for trust in ways that men do not? If we do, should we stop? Are we playing into stereotypes? Are we inviting people to take us less seriously?
István to Steven to Stefánie
Susan Faludi’s memoir reveals the deep complexity of her father’s many identities.
by LaVonne Neff
Answers without questions
Reading Steve and Sharol Hayner's cancer story, I found myself taking on the role of Job's adversary.
Poverty and blame in Appalachia
More jobs would help, says J. D. Vance. So would a stronger work ethic.
by Debra Bendis
Faith, learning, and scandal
Baylor transformed itself from a regional Baptist teaching institution into an internationally recognized Protestant research university—but not without scandal.
by David Cramer
Roots and Sky, by Christie Purifoy
Even in the jagged edges of life, God’s glory shines. And we are the cultivators of this glory.
Bipolar Faith, by Monica A. Coleman
Honest and harrowing, this spiritual autobiography testifies to God’s persuasive presence in a life that bears family legacies of slavery, alcoholism, abuse, and mental illness.
Teaching love
Honestly facing the conflict of self with self—and choosing words that reveal its particular manifestations in one life—is hard, hard work.
Writing the Christian life: The essence of spiritual memoir
A memoir becomes explicitly Christian when it derives its literary power from the power of the gospel. It doesn't preach, it shows.