What I Know

“In the past, memoir was the country of old people, looking back, a reminiscence. But now people are disclosing their lives in their twenties, writing their first memoir in their thirties, and their second in their forties. This revolution in personal narrative that has unrolled across the American landscape in the last two and a half decades is the expression of a uniquely American energy: a desire to understand in the heat of living, while life is fresh, and not wait until old age—it may be too late. We are hungry—and impatient now.”

—Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend from Far Away: The Practice of Writing Memoir

In the heat of living, what do you want to understand about your life? What one question has been underlying your journey through life—and why? What have you already learned in answer to that question?

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