After reading David Sedaris’ Barrel Fever which contained a mix of stories and essays, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, written as autofiction, Coleman decided the term memoir did not mean 100% true. Early on, she felt like an imposter, unable to fit her idea of a book into a predefined mold. Currently a finalist for the 2018 PEN Open Book Award, her concept for the book started as a chapbook and evolved into a short collection of flash fiction.

Coleman’s book titled How to Sit, a mixed genre “not 100% nonfiction” story that pushes the boundaries of how we think about memoir. Turning words into art is the goal of Tyrese L.

He pointed out that the panel’s creative nonfiction authors come from different locations and variety of presses (academic, independent and large independent with big-five distribution and one was published via a contest). Their expectations are met with realities and emotions from elation to melancholy.Īnthony Moll, who moderated the panel, opened the session with remarks regarding his own journey launching his memoir Out of Step, which won the 2017 Nonfiction Collection Prize from The Ohio State University Press and The Journal and was recently named a finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award. From manuscript to book, rollout and reception of their work, five new memoirists discussed what to expect when publishing intimate details about one’s life. The panel provided insights into the unique experiences each author had launching their first memoir in 2018. This assorted group of writers with books published in 2018 share their experiences launching their first memoirs: the expectations each had starting the process, the path from manuscript to book, the rollout and reception of each work, and the range of emotions that come with such a launch, from elation to melancholy. Coleman, Sarah Fawn Montgomery, Joseph Osmundson, Anthony Moll, Matt Youngĭescription: Five new memoirists discuss what to expect when you’re expecting a memoir.

How to Sit by Tyrese Coleman