Bøker av Jennifer Leigh Selig

We stand at the crossroads of two remarkable eras: the golden age of memoir and the golden age of publishing. This is an exciting time for memoir readers. However, for memoir writers, it presents a formidable challenge. In a saturated market brimming with competition, how do you captivate the hearts of readers and the discerning eyes of publishers?Cheryl Strayed, the celebrated author of the wildly successful memoir Wild, reveals a crucial secret: "The most powerful strand in memoir is . . . tapping into your universality." You mine "your" story for "our" story, the universal inside of the unique, the archetypal inside of the personal-that's where the gold lies.While many books on memoir writing acknowledge this, none are dedicated to showing you precisely how to and where to tap into the universal. Until now. In Deep Memoir, author and popular memoir teacher Jennifer Leigh Selig distills decades of experience in writing, teaching, and research into nine chapters focused on the archetypes essential to memoir writing:¿ The Storyteller¿ Structure¿ The Journey¿ Character¿ Truth¿ Meaning¿ Image ¿ Transformation¿ CommunityDeep Memoir is not just a book; it's an odyssey into the heart of memoir writing. Enriched with examples from over 140 memoirs and the stories of their creators, and enhanced by cutting-edge neuroscience about our brain's affinity and affection for archetypal patterns, this book is an indispensable companion for all memoir writers seeking to enrich their storytelling and expand their reach.

Conventional wisdom says the way out of writing block is simple-you just write. It's a twist on this Vincent van Gogh quote: "If you hear a voice within you saying: You are no painter, then paint by all means, lad, and that voice will be silenced, but only by working." And so it goes-if we hear a voice telling us we are no writer, or then we should write, by all means, and that voice will be silenced. Louis L'Amour, prolific American writer of 105 novels, short-story collections, and nonfiction books, admonishes us to do the same: "Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." Just turn the faucet on, lad. Just turn the faucet on. Sounds so easy, right? And yet for those of us who have experienced sometimes debilitating writer's block, there's no way we can just turn the faucet on-it's like all of our fingers are superglued together inside oven mitts wrapped in our granny's thick quilt and tied behind our backs with industrial strength duct tape. Just turn the faucet on, just sit down and start pecking away at the piece we're stuck on, word by word-that's not always helpful advice. In this workbook, psychologist Dr. Jennifer Leigh Selig offers both wise and witty ways to work with and through your writer's block. Each page offers a different challenge-for example, on one page, you'll be encouraged to write a response to something Stephen King said about writer's block; on another, you'll write an obituary for your writer's block; on another, you'll fill in the blanks of a tongue-in-cheek Mad Lib; on another, you'll consider what fears may be driving your writer's block; on another, you'll consider ways to entice writing out of yourself. Reverently irreverent-or is it irreverently reverent?-this book is designed to get your hands out of those oven mitts and back on the page.

Jesse Jackson once said of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Thinking about him is like thinking about the prism, the sun shining through a glass from as many angles as you look. You know there is another set of rays, and as many angles as you think about Dr. King, there is yet another set of angles with which to analyze him." Author and depth psychologist Jennifer Leigh Selig approaches King from the angle of a cultural therapist, a radical conceit that extends therapy beyond the bounded container of the consulting room and into the cultural milieu, and beyond the narrow purview of the licensed few and into the hands of the committed many. During the Civil Rights Movement, Selig illustrates how King put America on the couch, talked with her about her issues, challenged her to see her psychological dis-ease, and marched with her along the path of healing, toward her own integration. And just as common wisdom says that therapists can only take clients as far toward wholeness as they have traveled themselves, it is illuminating to look at King's psychological health for hints about why he was able to succeed, and where he might have failed, to heal his "client," the soul of America. Drawing upon the mythic roles that possessed King-the deliverer, the prophet, and the martyr-savior-and the mythic goal that obsessed him-the creation of the beloved community-this book is a fascinating and ground-breaking exploration of the psyche and mythos of one man and his country struggling toward integration.

As a teacher who has attended several dozen graduations, as an adult who can remember having been there myself, with all the attendant confusion and mixed emotions, I often wish there was something we could give to our graduates beyond just a diploma. A diploma, after all, speaks only to the past: "This is what your life has been about-this is what you have achieved. Done. Finished." But it is not by accident that the word commencement is synonymous with graduation: commencement means a new start or beginning, implying the future rather than the past. So it seems to me that we are partially derelict in our duty to our graduates in handing them words on a diploma that only testify to what they did in the past at this ceremony-to truly mark commencement, we should also hand them words about what they can do in the future.Toni Morrison once wrote, "If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Here is that book-the words I wished I had been handed when graduated, the words I wish I could hand to my students when they graduate, the words I wish we could hand to all of our students when they graduate.