Category: Writing
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The sounds of my childhood
Brown Girl in the ring by Boney M. Celebration by Cool and the Gang. Mamma Mia by Abba Night to remember by Shalamar Candy Girl by New Edition. ABC by the Jackson 5. Writing memoir evokes so much, the memories flood back with intensity. The familiar tunes of my childhood have been ringing in my…
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The sounds of my memoir
Writing memoir evokes memories, visceral and palpable. The sounds, smells and tastes of my childhood have come flooding back which such clarity, I have often felt I was back home, in the Lagos of my youth, the Lagos of the 1970s and 1980s. Writing just a few chapters, these were some of the sounds that…
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I found an old poem I wrote that is so telling.
Between 2009-2011, I did a creative writing program which exposed me to different genres of creative writing. During one of the semesters, we explored different types of poetry and were encouraged to mine our emotions and memories, and write our own poems.I must, at this juncture, state that poetry is not really my thing, but…
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“Everyone has a story to tell” -Growing industry makes memoir more accessible.
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When your closest loved ones are main characters
As an aspiring memoirist, this is a conundrum! How does one write about closest family and friends without causing offence? Is that even possible? The thing about memoir is that you are writing from YOUR perspective, about your memories of specific events as best you remember them. By definition, your memory of events could be…
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To translate or not?
My memoir is set for a good part in the South of Nigeria, amongst the Yoruba people and the melting pot of big city Lagos. Nigeria is a former British colony and as such, the official language is English. But there are several local languages ( like Yoruba) which are spoken, as well as pidgin…
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Stepping into the void…
In my first ever Gotham class on the art of writing memoir, I was introduced to a wonderful teacher, Elizabeth Cohen, published author of memoir, poetry and non-fiction works, and creative writing professor. Over ten sessions, Elizabeth introduced us to using the finesse and tools of fiction to tell our stories. Our stories can’t just…
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So you wanna write a memoir?
“So, you wanna write a memoir? Go figure out what it’s all about and what it takes.” my husband said to me, and this is what I did. The Gotham Writers Workshop was amazing – they have 3 memoir courses: Memoir I and II, take you through fundamentals of memoir writing, then finally, for those…
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Out of Sequence
My project began as a collection of memories, memories of odd encounters and strange things I had observed about my reclusive father over time. My brother and I lived abroad, away from our father who still lived in our family home in Nigeria, but periodically we would travel back for a visit or my father.…
Novice Memoirist 