Literature

The Purpose of the Memoir: A Conversation with Authors Leigh Newman and Aspen Matis

Tuesday, January 24
8:00 PM

We invite you to explore memoir writing with authors Leigh Newman and Aspen Matis as they read from and discuss their works, Still Points North: One Alaskan Childhood, One Grown-up World, One Long Journey Home by Newman and Girl in the Woods by Matis. Both authors are deeply influenced by the great outdoors, adventure, and the near-death experiences they survived, and both authors have worked hard to understand themselves and what it means to love and be loved. They’ll discuss the pros and cons of memoir writing and crossing genres in their writing, as well as how to break into publishing.     
   The New York Times says Still Points North "is where writing really comes to life," and Sarah Wildman of The New York Times Book Review calls Girl in the Woods "a reckoning with trauma but also a reckoning with the self and an embrace of self-reliance."
   Leigh Newman’s fiction, essays and book reviews have appeared in One Story, Tin House, The New York Times, Fiction, New York Tyrant, and Vogue. She currently serves as Books Editor at Oprah.com and as an editor-at-large for Catapult.
   Aspen Matis has been published in The New York Times, Tin House, Psychology Today, Salon, and Marie Claire. She is working on a novel and is completing her undergraduate degree at Columbia University.