Dear Memoirist, Do / Do Not Get Bent, Love Everybody
Over at The Daily Beast, Taylor Antrim is complaining about memoirs, in particular Alex Lemon’s Happy and Nick Flynn’s The Ticking is the Bomb. Over at The Rumpus, Stephen Elliott has responded with a defense of the memoir. Which you should go check out. Meanwhile, I’m going to harp on a point that neither Antrim nor Elliott raised (though Elliott came awfully close).
Antrim’s essay is mostly a re-tread of fairly (or extensively) well-mapped territory, but his charmingly wrong-headed thesis actually succeeds in opening up an interesting discussion, albeit one he doesn’t ever get around to having. It’s right there in his piece’s headline- “Why Some Memoirs Are Better As Fiction.” First of all, what he means to say is that “some memoirs would be better as fiction,” but stick a pin in that and let’s move on.
Antrim unaccountably assumes that the writer sat down and chose between these and only these two mediums: the novel and the memoir. If you don’t accept this conceit, then his entire piece makes no sense. I would, therefore, like to point out to Antrim, that both Alex Lemon and Nick Flynn (despite the latter’s previous success as a memoirist) are poets by trade, and that their decision to write memoir has less to do with any kind of turning-away from fiction (which was probably never of significant interest to them anyway) than it does with the general sustained interest in personal nonfiction narratives across the board, and the kinds of opportunities that shift might afford to an early- or mid-career writer with a decent reputation and public profile, but a primary vocation that nobody is willing to pay them to practice (though they may yet be paid handsomely to teach other people to practice it, but let’s stick a pin in that, too).
Flynn and Lemon are only two of the latest in a burgeoning tradition of prose memoirs penned by poets, one which in recent years has included Maggie Nelson’s Jane, Sarah Manguso’s Two Kinds of Decay, and Katy Lederer’s Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers, and so on. Flynn’s own massively successful first memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, might have been the catalyst for this current wave. (Not to suggest that the poet-memoir is a new phenomenon, only that this is its newest iteration.) Many poets already write what can fairly be called autobiographical poetry, and so it only makes sense that, with Flynn’s first prose book as the example, other people got the idea that they could funnel that same poetry-energy into a medium that would command more rather than less critical attention and financial reward. This is not to say whether any of the particular books I’ve named are good (or bad–I’ve not read them), or what this trends means with concern to poetry and/or literature in general, but it seems to me that for the first time in at least a generation, contemporary poets are surveying a field that is expanding rather than contracting. Bully for them.
And just to end where we started–with Antrim–a large part of his complaint is that the memoirs in question may be meditative or ruminative, and densely packed with arresting prose and striking images, but they are light on plot, story, or narrative arc. Which is why he thinks he is describing failed novels. He seems to not realize that he may actually be describing successful poems.
Tags: memoir, Stephen Elliott, Taylor Antrim
Unlike Antrim, a smart, unlazy consideration of the genre. Very much appreciated. Your posts are good posts.
Unlike Antrim, a smart, unlazy consideration of the genre. Very much appreciated. Your posts are good posts.
Yes, this was excellent. Thanks for posting it.
Yes, this was excellent. Thanks for posting it.
This is smart. I like the way you tack (sailing term, meaning arrive from a slant to get ahead in my defintion here) the argument.
Do you follow the Paul Guest thing with Ecco?
I like what you’re saying, though not into the memoirs you reference (unfortunately, I’ve read a few of them).
The biggest myth I have ever heard and keep on hearing: Poets never make any money.
I can’t tell you the amount of poets I know who keep making money. The memoir is one way. And I’m not that into memoirs (was), but at least the poet memoirs are usually (italics) into the word, the sentence.
That’s a lot more than some.
This is smart. I like the way you tack (sailing term, meaning arrive from a slant to get ahead in my defintion here) the argument.
Do you follow the Paul Guest thing with Ecco?
I like what you’re saying, though not into the memoirs you reference (unfortunately, I’ve read a few of them).
The biggest myth I have ever heard and keep on hearing: Poets never make any money.
I can’t tell you the amount of poets I know who keep making money. The memoir is one way. And I’m not that into memoirs (was), but at least the poet memoirs are usually (italics) into the word, the sentence.
That’s a lot more than some.
So poets can make money if they become something other than poets?
So poets can make money if they become something other than poets?
or not. I have plenty of friends who make money as poets.
or not. I have plenty of friends who make money as poets.
Qualify your remark, Sean. I want to be clear we’re talking about the same thing. Not poets who have sweet teaching gigs. Not poets who have won impressive awards or grants. Nick Flynn goes to the bank and cashes a royalty check, because “Another Bullshit Night…” made back the money that was advanced to him when the publisher bought it, and so now when a copy of it sells, a percentage of that sale belongs to him. Copies of it continue to sell, ergo he is making money off the book. You are saying that you personally “can’t tell [me] how many people [you] know” who make money–off of their volumes of verse–in the manner which I am describing. Am I getting you right here?
Qualify your remark, Sean. I want to be clear we’re talking about the same thing. Not poets who have sweet teaching gigs. Not poets who have won impressive awards or grants. Nick Flynn goes to the bank and cashes a royalty check, because “Another Bullshit Night…” made back the money that was advanced to him when the publisher bought it, and so now when a copy of it sells, a percentage of that sale belongs to him. Copies of it continue to sell, ergo he is making money off the book. You are saying that you personally “can’t tell [me] how many people [you] know” who make money–off of their volumes of verse–in the manner which I am describing. Am I getting you right here?
Ok, these you/me exchanges are getting baffling, but I will reply. Most likely we are not talking about the same thing. I didn’t say we were. What i said is I know a lot of people who call themselves poets and write poems consistently who pay mortgages and whatnot.
What do I need to qualify?
I never said these poets I know making money didn’t use grants (we once called these benefactors, only it is tough to wine and dine and swine a grant–though not impossible), academic jobs, whatever resource. My point is their POETRY led to all they have.
They have the grant, the job, the fellowship, the house (and a farm), because, key here, because they wrote the POEMS.
The poems were first, is my point. First.
That’s all.
They wrote good poems and that went exponential. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, seeing so many undergrads venting, in despair because they want to write poems, period, but all, parents, the world, whatever, say NO. How can you make a living writing poems?
You can. A good living. I see it all the time. And a living that allows you–key–to write more poems.
That’s all I’m saying.
Ok, these you/me exchanges are getting baffling, but I will reply. Most likely we are not talking about the same thing. I didn’t say we were. What i said is I know a lot of people who call themselves poets and write poems consistently who pay mortgages and whatnot.
What do I need to qualify?
I never said these poets I know making money didn’t use grants (we once called these benefactors, only it is tough to wine and dine and swine a grant–though not impossible), academic jobs, whatever resource. My point is their POETRY led to all they have.
They have the grant, the job, the fellowship, the house (and a farm), because, key here, because they wrote the POEMS.
The poems were first, is my point. First.
That’s all.
They wrote good poems and that went exponential. Maybe it’s the teacher in me, seeing so many undergrads venting, in despair because they want to write poems, period, but all, parents, the world, whatever, say NO. How can you make a living writing poems?
You can. A good living. I see it all the time. And a living that allows you–key–to write more poems.
That’s all I’m saying.
Okay, gotcha. So we’re really agreeing then- the poet-memoirist has essentially devised a strategy to sustain one form of writing by practicing a second one. Beats laying pipe, at least from what I’ve heard. But the question that interests me, I guess, is if the memoir can be made not just to serve the poems, but also to deliver most of the same satisfaction the writer seeks from writing poems, then wouldn’t the obvious conclusion be to focus on the thing that is both lucrative AND rewarding–write memoirs instead of poems? I mean grant-writing isn’t going to replace the joy of writing-proper, but nonfiction-writing certainly could… So where would that leave poetry?
Okay, gotcha. So we’re really agreeing then- the poet-memoirist has essentially devised a strategy to sustain one form of writing by practicing a second one. Beats laying pipe, at least from what I’ve heard. But the question that interests me, I guess, is if the memoir can be made not just to serve the poems, but also to deliver most of the same satisfaction the writer seeks from writing poems, then wouldn’t the obvious conclusion be to focus on the thing that is both lucrative AND rewarding–write memoirs instead of poems? I mean grant-writing isn’t going to replace the joy of writing-proper, but nonfiction-writing certainly could… So where would that leave poetry?
Yes, but you answer your own question. They aren’t writing memoirs because it is lucrative and rewarding. They are wriitng memoir because it is lucrative. A lot of these contracts have the I’ll-write-your-memoir-and-you’ll-bring-out-my-next-2-books-of-poems deal.
I mean poets play the system. Why? To write POEMS.
Grant writing is actually kind of cool, though. I actually just wrote a grant, to time off from classes, to, yes, write (not poems, but flash fiction, same thing, blah). Getting that email saying you won the grant feels great. You put down a few words, in a certain way, so you can write words, in your way.
Nonfiction won’t replace poetry writing, as for joy/verve/interest–not for the poet.
The poet is out there and will stay out there. Even if they have to come in there, briefly, to get back out there.
Yes, but you answer your own question. They aren’t writing memoirs because it is lucrative and rewarding. They are wriitng memoir because it is lucrative. A lot of these contracts have the I’ll-write-your-memoir-and-you’ll-bring-out-my-next-2-books-of-poems deal.
I mean poets play the system. Why? To write POEMS.
Grant writing is actually kind of cool, though. I actually just wrote a grant, to time off from classes, to, yes, write (not poems, but flash fiction, same thing, blah). Getting that email saying you won the grant feels great. You put down a few words, in a certain way, so you can write words, in your way.
Nonfiction won’t replace poetry writing, as for joy/verve/interest–not for the poet.
The poet is out there and will stay out there. Even if they have to come in there, briefly, to get back out there.
This is a great post. I have no argument.
I read an interview with the Oprah book author. I think she’s a yoga teacher in Chicago. Maybe this is obvious, but doesn’t Oprah supposedly already walk the walk of herself? Do we need a book about a person spending a year as a person whose life is already chronicled in magazines and TV?
This is a great post. I have no argument.
I read an interview with the Oprah book author. I think she’s a yoga teacher in Chicago. Maybe this is obvious, but doesn’t Oprah supposedly already walk the walk of herself? Do we need a book about a person spending a year as a person whose life is already chronicled in magazines and TV?
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nice post, this is what i need, thank for sharing, greetings
nice post, this is what i need, thank for sharing, greetings
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