Appeal of Writing Memoirs Grows, as Do Publishing Options By Elizabeth Olson

Writing the Memoir. No one keeps an official tally of enrollees, but teachers like Wendy Salinger, who conducts a summer memoir writing course at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, said retirees made up a substantial portion of these classes. “We help them understand that a memoir covers an aspect of their life,” said Ms. Salinger, who has written her own. “A memoir is not an autobiography that tells a life from beginning to end. A memoir has to tap into a universal truth.” There have long been memoirs, often written by celebrities and politicians. But recent bare-all personal tales like “Wild,” in which Cheryl Strayed unsparingly examines her life during a grueling hike on a Pacific Northwest trail, are inspiring more people to be increasingly candid about experiences that were once carefully hidden. “There are a lot of scenes my students write that knock my socks off,” Ms. Salinger said, “because people have to look inward to be honest, and that can be very difficult.” The confessional writing that results from such self-examination grates on some who find it self-indulgent or even cynical, and the genre got publicly sullied in 2006 when writer James Frey was caught mixing fiction with truth in his popular memoir “A Million Little Pieces.” But the genre has endured and even thrived. “It’s the age of memoirs,” Ms. Salinger said, as self-publishing has made it easier and more accessible to plumb an individual’s past and share it widely. And many do so because they believe memoir writing is therapeutic and revelatory. “A memoir can be a beautiful literary effort, or a sensational pop culture piece,” Ms. Todd, “and people want to read them.” The New York Times