WRITE YOUR OWN

MEMOIR Part One: February 17, 2015

Presented by SHARE in collaboration with

MBCN

Welcome

• Meet the Speakers

Christine Benjamin, LMSW

Breast Cancer Program Director

SHARE

www.sharecancersupport.org

Katherine O’Brien

Board Member

Metastatic Breast Cancer Network

www.mbcn.org

Abigail Thomas

Writer

www.abigailthomas.net

Getting Started…

• . • Why memoir?

• What IS memoir?

• What kinds of memoir are there, what are the rules?

• (There are no rules except for honesty.)

More Thoughts on Memoir

• What goes in memoir

• Finding a side door

when the direct

approach is too

daunting

• What to do when

something gets in the

way.

Additional Points to Ponder

• Is there a different objective for cancer patients or survivors than other people?

• Clarity: surprise yourself, be not a victim nor an angel

• NEVER worry about what others will think.

A Poem…

• Source:Counsel

by Kay Ryan

…and a student’s responsePursuing Wholeness

By Roberta Jehu

The body want to heal,

Always, the body wants to heal

Mammal, fish, bird, lizard

Flower, tree, plant

All grow scabs

shielding scrapes, cuts, scratches

Prepare to heal!

Lymphocyte cavalry at the ready

the alarm sounds

Scrape ho!

white soldiers spill onto the battlefield

an army trained perfectly for the task

protect, mend, relieve, kill

(continues)

Pursuing Wholeness (continues)

The body wants to heal

to feel whole and energetic

to forget that ache in the tooth

the pain in the neck

the phantom limb

the blind eye

The body returns from death

almost every time

cures itself of disease

of discomfort, of weakness

or sadness, of hunger or loneliness

or thirst for a kiss

Pursuing Wholeness (conclusion)

The body is a sure sign of God

or magic or pure love

an impeccably tuned instrument

adept at seeing feeling

being and doing and touching

and making love or art or trouble

or offering help just because

The body always wants to heal

desires healing

calls in its own militia

does battle with forces of evil

lifts its hands in prayer

provides a warm embrace

looks back, walks forward, dances.

Another Poem: “How to Like It”

Full text of Stephen Dobyns’ poem can

be found here:

http://www.smith.edu/poetrycenter/poets/

howtolikeit.html

It inspired the title of this memoir coming out at

the end of March from Scribners.

http://books.simonandschuster.com/What-

Comes-Next-and-How-to-Like-It/Abigail-

Thomas/9781476785059

How to Like It

• Sometimes a passing truck makes his whole car shake.The dog says, Let's go to sleep. Let's lie downby the fire and put our tails over our noses.But the man wants to drive all night, crossingone state line after another, and never stopuntil the sun creeps into his rearview mirror.Then he'll pull over and rest awhile beforestarting again, and at dusk he'll crest a hilland there, filling a valley, will be the lightsof a city entirely new to him.But the dog says, Let's just go back inside.Let's not do anything tonight. So theywalk back up the sidewalk to the front steps.How is it possible to want so many thingsand still want nothing. The man wants to sleepand wants to hit his head again and again against a wall. Why is it all so difficult?But the dog says, Let's go make a sandwich.Let's make the tallest sandwich anyone's ever seen.And that's what they do and that's where the man's wife finds him, staring into the refrigeratoras if into the place where the answers are kept-the ones telling why you get up in the morningand how it is possible to sleep at night,answers to what comes next and how to like it.

From VELOCITIES: NEW & SELECTED POEMS (Penguin, 1994)

• By Stephen Dobyns

• These are the first days of fall. The windat evening smells of roads still to be traveled,while the sound of leaves blowing across the lawnsis like an unsettled feeling in the blood,the desire to get in a car and just keep driving.A man and a dog descend their front steps.The dog says, Let's go downtown and get crazy drunk.Let's tip over all the trash cans we can find.This is how dogs deal with the prospect of change.But in his sense of the season, the man is struckby the oppressiveness of his past, how his memorieswhich were shifting and fluid have grown more soliduntil it seems he can see remembered facescaught up among the dark places in the trees.The dog says, Let's pick up some girls and justrip off their clothes. Let's dig holes everywhere.Above his house, the man notices wisps of cloudcrossing the face of the moon. Like in a movie,he says to himself, a movie about a personleaving on a journey. He looks down the street to the hills outside of town and finds the cutwhere the road heads north. He thinks of drivingon that road and the dusty smell of the carheater, which hasn't been used since last winter.The dog says, Let's go down to the diner and sniffpeople's legs. Let's stuff ourselves on burgers.In the man's mind, the road is empty and dark.Pine trees press down to the edge of the shoulder,where the eyes of animals, fixed in his headlights, shine like small cautions against the night.

And Now It’s Your Turn…

• Listen for the assignment (we'll post it online, too).

• Write two pages on the topic.

• Send your two pages to cbenjamin@sharecancersupport.org

• We will forward to Abigail and “share with the class” for Part 2 on February 24, 2015.

• If you have written two pages based on a 10 year period of your life with 3 word sentences only, send it along as

• Don’t be shy!

Questions?

Q&A with Abigail

Photo: Jennifer May

PART 2 IS NEXT

TUESDAY, FEB. 24Abigail, SHARE & MBCN return next Tuesday for Part 2:

1:30 to 2:30 PM EST.

If you haven’t done so, register here:

http://bit.ly/memoirpt2

THANK YOU!Questions about this webinar or next week’s

event? Email:

cbenjamin@sharecancersupport.org