Your Memoir, the Way You Want It | | | |  | |
|
Springtime’s Message: “Hang on to Your Hope”
Spring has officially arrived here in Massachusetts! Countless writers have mined the metaphorical potential of this change in seasons, with the coming of spring symbolizing a triumph of light, warmth, and abundance over darkness, cold, and deprivation. Of course, our lives and world events do not follow in lockstep the patterns of earthly seasons; but, if we stop to notice the natural world around us, springtime’s associations with awakening or reemergence, new life, and longer days can provide a sense of hope no matter what we might face in our immediate or distant areas of concern.
As conservationist Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring, wrote: “There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” Trees and flowers bloom again, the sun returns, and birds and spring peepers fill the warming air with song. Perhaps those going through challenging personal times or despairing at tragedies unfolding around the world can find solace in these seasonal gifts.
Or, maybe they don’t feel like gifts at all! Blooming flowers, bright sunlight, and chirping bids may seem like affronts to a person experiencing a season of grief or despair. Perhaps the warmer weather and longer days exert an unwelcomed pressure to move on, or even a sense of betrayal. One might think, How can the earth keep turning, the sun keep shining, the days keep moving on?
But move on, they do. In the depths of pain or hopelessness, poet Rainer Maria Rilke's reminder, “No feeling is final,” may provide comfort. I am also moved by essayist E.B. White’s 1973 letter to a reader who wrote to him expressing a loss of faith in humanity. “Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time,” White replied. “I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.”
You can read White’s full letter at the wonderful site Letters of Note, and I close this post with his own closing words from that piece, encouraging and wise in any season we may meet: “Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.”
Megan St. Marie
President
| |
|
New Genealogy Workshop Offerings
by Genealogist Liz Sonnenberg
|  | |
I am excited to announce that I have developed a genealogy workshop series as a new offering during this 30th anniversary year in Modern Memoirs’ history. As of this writing, I am halfway through “Learn to Investigate Your Family History” at the South County Senior Center in Sunderland, Massachusetts. I’m leading a group of genealogy enthusiasts through four presentations exploring best practices for conducting genealogical research. The program is designed to provide a solid foundation for people who are new to the work, and a good reminder of key concepts for those who are more experienced. The workshop series covers:
- Session 1—Introduction: Seeking the true story
- Session 2—Analyzing evidence: How do you know what you know?
- Session 3—Gathering and organizing information: Be methodical
- Session 4—Reporting your findings: Completing your research and sharing it with others
Contact me today if you would be interested in having us present this workshop series for your organization, too! Also, watch for upcoming newsletters for an announcement about the program being offered online.
| |
Testimonial by former client Harold Hirshman, author of sketches from memory (2005) and sketches from memory and more (2023) | |
More Updates to the 30th Anniversary Website Page
by Publishing Associate Emma Solis
As the topmost image of this newsletter indicates, we are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Modern Memoirs’ founding by retired president Kitty Axelson-Berry. That means we have 30 years’ worth of history to dive into! I’ve been sifting through our records for the past few months in order to celebrate this milestone and others we are marking in 2024 to share how our creative, compassionate team of publishing professionals strives to create books that meet and exceed client expectations.
There is much to explore on the resulting Celebrating 30 Years! page of the Modern Memoirs website. In addition to features highlighted in last month’s newsletter (such as our greeting-card gallery, maps showing our company’s impressive geographic reach, and a timeline), Publishing Intern Olivia Go and I have been hard at work on other items to share this month. These include several book gallery “samplers,” which show the evolution of our print and design services over time. Our first gallery displays the handbound, limited-run editions created by Kitty Axelson-Berry in the early years of the company, while other galleries exhibit the professional print and design options we are especially proud of today (such as custom silver- or gold-foil stamps and eye-catching gloss or matte dustjackets).
We’ve also created a carousel of client testimonials, including one from this month’s interviewee, Harold Hirshman. Reading through such heartfelt and honest reflections would be a great way for you to begin imagining the possibilities for your own book project and what the experience of publishing with Modern Memoirs may be like for you.
Keep watching the Celebrating 30 Years! page as the year unfolds, and stay tuned for information about new products we are developing to help you mark milestones in your life, too.
| |
Featured Blog Posts by Our Staff | |
Young Like Didion
By Publishing Intern Olivia Go
| |
Reflections from Client
Harold Hirshman
Interview by Genealogist Liz Sonnenberg
| | |
|
Mountain Springs: A memoir of growing up in Sierra City, California, including Poetry, Photography and Art by Lydia Cartwright Rosen (2014, second printing 2015) |
A Memoir: A Little Bit of Everything
By Director of Publishing Ali de Groot
| |
A person can never fit into a box or category, and neither do memoirs. I’ve been asked, “What is a memoir?” or “How does a memoir differ from an autobiography?” Even though I’m in this business, truth is, I don’t really care to focus on the definition of a memoir. I usually respond, “A memoir is whatever you want it to be.”
Lydia Cartwright Rosen came to Modern Memoirs with a manuscript she’d written about her family history and about growing up in California. Born in the Sierra Nevada mountains, she had a good amount of archival photos of people and places, even a photo of the 1952 avalanche that nearly swallowed the little town of Sierra City.
Once we were finished with the manuscript and the design, Lydia decided to add some paintings she had done. Then some poems. Then some photography. Then some collages. We kept adding and adding until it effectively became an art book/memoir. This resulted in a beautiful square coffee-table book, not just filled with family memories but also offering tiny windows into the soul of the author herself through her artistic ventures.
With that in mind, I say: Feel free to let your inner artist out, either in writing, photographs, painting, poetry, or all of the above! It will help your readers learn about your life and, more importantly, who you are inside.
* * *
Excerpt from “Early March” by Lydia Cartwright Rosen:
… I am in the mountains of my childhood, in early
March, my mother on the porch stamping snow
from her boots, the door
opening, and my mother and the two dogs
riding essence of cedar-snow
into the old house…
And for me
a clutch of first violets and a leaf
in my mother’s rough hand, always
so warm.
|
| | |
March Question: What is a favorite poem, quotation, or painting that speaks to you about springtime? | |
Staff responses:
Megan St. Marie: Claude Monet’s Springtime (or The Reader), 1872, pictured above, with more information available at The Walters Art Museum.
Sean St. Marie: I love the image of “ferns that never fade” in Claude McKay’s poem “After the Winter.”
Ali de Groot: “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.” —Hal Borland
Liz Sonnenberg: “It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” ―Rainer Maria Rilke
Nicole Miller: Bright, playful landscapes by David Hockney and Eric Carle come to mind.
Emma Solis: “Having a tree growing up out of me / Is often a worrisome thing. / I’m twisty and thorny and branchy and bare / But wait till you see me in Spring,” from the poem “Headache” by Shel Silverstein.
Olivia Go: I love the poem “Spring” by Mary Oliver, which appears in her book, House of Light.
| |
Memory Lane Stroll
We’d love to hear your brief personal reflections on the question of the month (at left). Write your response for a chance to be featured in the next edition of our e-newsletter!
Responses to our February question: Fill in the blank— LOVE IS…
“Never having to say you’re sorry! ...the classic answer.’’
—“GrandPa St.”
“Sharing the last brownie in the pan.”
—Bill Sonnenberg
| Featured Title at
Memory Lane Books & Gifts | Although the June 1996 photo of bluebells in bloom was technically taken in early summer, the cover art for Kate Navarra’s memoir, A Lump in the Road, evokes the hopefulness of springtime. Hope and humor pervade this young mother’s big-hearted memoir about facing a cancer diagnosis, and you can find it for sale in our online shop, Memory Lane Books & Gifts. | | | | |
|
|
Stop by to see us in person or online:
417 West Street, Suite 104
Amherst, MA 01002
www.modernmemoirs.com
| Was this e-newsletter forwarded to you? | | | | |
