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Memoirs of the Soul (Revised and Expanded Edition)
A Writing Guide
By Nan Merrick Phifer
Memoirs of the Soul: A Writing Guide offers an easy-to-follow method to inexperienced and experienced writers alike, but its real gift is author Nan Phifer’s ability to challenge any writer to enter into the heart of their most meaningful material. She illustrates that for the would-be memoirist the benefits of delving into spiritual experience, whether they are moments of joy, despair, grief, or sorrow, are not only deeper self-knowledge but also an enriched power to communicate and the ability to complete a profound and polished memoir.
Nan grants her reader permission to write badly, quickly, and impulsively. Through respectful guidance she offers a practical path to gradually go deeper into the psyche and discover who we are. Building upon the strengths of her first edition, as well as over thirty years of memoir-writing instruction, this book offers the amateur author inspiring challenges to explore threads of desire, passion, grief, and love, as well as everything from adolescent angst to encounters with the numinous.
"[Phifer] offers a structured, well-organized process for writers to follow, which includes specific exercises, inspiring quotations, and examples of student work from her memoir-writing workshops....this how-to is highly recommended for all public libraries."
—Library Journal
"Nan gives you all the nuts and bolts—writing prompts, creative exercises, suggestions for revisions, and lots of emotional support—the practical things writers need to get started and make progress. But the true gift of this book is the way it introduces you to yourself."
—Jane Thompkins, PhD
Writer, University of Illinois in Chicago
"Phifer’s carefully phrased prompts, instructions, and examples ask writers to begin at the surface of their existence and to burrow deeper and deeper into their hearts and minds, With each chapter, she challenges would-be memoirists to take another step inward, to inch closer to their own souls."
—Professor W. Keith Duffy
The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning
Nan Merrick Phifer is a codirector of the Oregon Writing Project at the University of Oregon, and leads workshops in memoir writing that range from monthly sessions in Indianapolis to retreats in the Rocky Mountains to nationwide online teaching. She has helped everyone from high school dropouts to devoted pastors explore and share their spiritual labyrinths. She brings her impressive background and tested wisdom to this second edition, offering even more descriptive exercises and rich examples.
Rights available in all languages
For rights or distribution information, contact blessingwy@aol.com.
| Categories | Writing Reference, Autobiography, Personal Growth |
| ISBN | 978-0-9842060-0-1 |
| Format | 8.5 x 10, 264 pages |
| Price | $19.95 |
| Pub Date | 2011 |
| Publisher | Ingot Press |
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All rights reserved
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E mail: Blessingwy@aol.com