Memoirs: Learning by Experience

The AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY defines memoir as "an account of an author's personal experiences," and while some writers present the whole of their lives, others focus on certain, life-changing events. With the publication of LEARNING TO SWIM, Ann Turner joins author Sonya Sones in producing a memoir written entirely in free verse about a painful time in her life. While Sones wrote about her sister's sudden onset of schizophrenia, Turner has written about sexual abuse, bringing to life a painful summer in her sixth year. When asked to comment on LEARNING TO SWIM, she said, "…I have taken a painful, silent time in my childhood and transformed it into something healing and life-giving." Whether you read memoirs to understand your own life better, or simply to partake of some beautiful prose, they're a great way to spend an afternoon.