Family Ties: Heartache and Humor in Women's Memoirs

with Lori Rotskoff
Wednesdays, 7:00 - 8:30 PM
09/17, 10/22, 12/03, 01/07, 02/11, 03/11, 04/15, 05/13, 06/03
BCRW, 101 Barnard Hall
Registration is closed.

"Memoir, for better or worse, is the genre of our time."

This class explores recent memoirs by American women, all focusing on the vast, essential subject of family. How do writers recapture the range of emotions that animate their lives from youth to adulthood? How do they reconstruct relationships with their mothers, fathers, siblings, and other relatives in order to shed light on their own selfawareness? How do they reconcile their identities and ambitions with the values—and, often, the failures or limitations—of the families who raised them?

Participants of all ages and backgrounds are welcome to join our monthly discussion group. The mood is informal, yet informative. Come share your thoughts, ideas, and opinions with other open-minded, passionate readers.

This is not a writing workshop, but participants working on their own memoirs will benefit from the attention we pay to voice, narrative structure, and thematic language in works by noted authors.

Lori Rotskoff is a cultural historian of American family life. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University, and has written articles and reviews for the Chicago Tribune, Reviews in American History, and The Women's Review of Books. This is her fourth year teaching the Barnard Center for Research on Women.

Tentative Reading List:
Jennifer Finney Boylan, She's Not There
Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I'm Dying
Lillian Faderman, Naked in the Promised Land
Leslie Garis, House of Happy Endings
Haven Kimmel, A Girl Named Zippy
Mary Karr, The Liar's Club
Lucette Lagnado, The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit
Emily Rapp, Poster Child
Helene Stapinski, Five-Finger Discount

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Women's Cultures / Women's Lives

with Leslie Calman
Tuesdays, 6:30 - 8:00 PM
09/23, 10/21, 11/18, 12/16, 01/13, 2/10, 03/10, 04/7, 05/05, 06/02
BCRW, 101 Barnard Hall
Registration is closed.

Now in its 18th year, Women's Cultures/ Women's Lives is a reading group that explores contemporary fiction and memoir by women of many cultures—with the inclusion of a classic or two and, to round things out, an occasional male author writing about women. Be prepared for spirited and insightful discussion, laughter and lively debate. Led by Leslie Calman, former Director of the Barnard Center for Research on Women, and current executive director of the Mautner Project: The National Lesbian Health Organization

Reading List:
Kate Christensen, The Great Man
Jeanette Winterson, Oranges are Not the Only Fruit
Natsuo Kirino, Grotesque
Maggie O'Farrell, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Edith Wharton, The Children
Dahlia Sofer, The September of Shiraz
Jane Harris, The Observations
J.M. Coetzee, Elizabeth Costello
Kate Grenville, Secret River
Susan Choi, A Person of Interest

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