Memory As Muse

What will you discover in this collection of 84 memories and life stories? Examples of personal essay - including hermit crab and epistolary forms - narrative poetry, creative nonfiction, flash and micro memoir that run the gamut: shocking, enchanting, inspiring, laugh-out-loud funny, tear-producing, and wonderfully wise.

Writing is how we preserve the stories of our lives, and everyone has stories worth preserving - for family, friends, and posterity. Between 2015 and 2022, the 36 contributors gathered in one or more small groups of 8 to 12, in-person and online, called Wild Muse: Show Up & Write! All levels of experience were, and are, welcome. In 2022, it became clear that publishing this collection was the best way to recognize and celebrate the tremendous dedication and growth of these writers.

As you dip in and out of Memory as Muse: Then and Now, you will experience and perhaps resonate with a brief scene or narrative from someone's childhood, young adulthood, midlife, or beyond. Each one is a mini portrait of a person and their environment, often revealing a change in understanding or belief, in addition to a change in circumstance - between then and now.