Writing—Lisa’s memoir writing

Owning Your Story

Owning Your Story

I’ve been absent from this newsletter for some time. Life intervenes, as the saying goes, but because I am passionate about crafting stories from life, I thought I’d tell you a story about why I’ve been gone for awhile, and in that story you might…

Stephanie Davis-Namm, Richard White, Park Plazas & Santa Fe—Why We Write Memoir: A Manifesto for 2020/The Year of Seeing Clearly

Stephanie Davis-Namm, Richard White, Park Plazas & Santa Fe—Why We Write Memoir: A Manifesto for 2020/The Year of Seeing Clearly

I often get queries about how to write a short memoir and make it worth reading. I have decided to share a gnarly situation from my own life to show you how to take the content of your day-to-day and turn it into a short…

Why You Need to Understand Publisher Macmillan’s Stand Against Trump

Why You Need to Understand Publisher Macmillan’s Stand Against Trump

No matter what form of writing you practice, whether you are a memoirist, novelist, poet, essayist or journalist—or you are just beginning your dream of writing and publishing—you need to know and care about publisher Macmillan’s recent stand against Trump. What happened: If you have…

10 Ways to Prime the Creative Pump

10 Ways to Prime the Creative Pump

You haven’t heard from me in awhile. I’ve been in hibernation. Ever have one of those periods? I’ve been finishing a book and–let’s face it–grieving the loss of my mother and my dad, too, who died a few years earlier. I’ve been trying to figure…

I am in the presence of great art

I am in the presence of great art

I said those words today as I walked into the painting gallery of Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the greatest collections of art in Europe, and then I wept, privately, of course, but such moments do that to me, so grateful for the opportunity to…

October 3: German Day of Unity

October 3: German Day of Unity

 I have never been so happy as I was yesterday to see a decidedly Western shopping street replete with all the standard flagship stores. It’s just not the sort of place I seek out, and yet yesterday I purposefully took the tram and then the…

Living in the former East Berlin

Living in the former East Berlin

I have been traveling for days, one day on the train, a late night in the new place, a full day exploring, and then back to the train. It’s been a demanding schedule and not particualrly conducive to evenings of reflective writing for my website.…

Sunny Brussels, Belgium

Sunny Brussels, Belgium

I’ve begun again sojourning through Europe searching for the final pieces to complete my new book. It feels different now than it did on my first journey to discover my parents’ trail through Europe, which they made right after World War Two. That trip of…

The Keystone XL Pipeline and The Sandhills of Nebraska

The Keystone XL Pipeline and The Sandhills of Nebraska

I know these Hills. I have lived amongst the people of the Sandhills for over 50 years; criss-crossed this land on back roads no more than sand ruts covering thousands of miles, not a person in sight; and written a book about this ecosystem that…

Writing, writing, writing

Writing, writing, writing

Here’s the thing: the writing pours out of me in this old pirate ship of a cabin. I am pushing the arc of the narrative closer and closer to being a complete book manuscript. I never could have forseen this story. It has given itself…