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Inside the Writer's Notebook

Presented by First Person Arts at Pagano's Market

November 7, 2009

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Ben Yagoda knows memoir. He has spent years exploring its history and analyzing its many different forms. A.J. Jacobs writes memoir — recounting the hilarious stories about unusual “experiments in living” that he undertakes. Rachel Simon takes on big personal challenges, then writes about what they teach her about life. Laurie Sandell writes and draws her stories. Her first graphic memoir about her difficult upbringing was published this year. Yagoda leads a conversation with the three authors, who will read excerpts from their recent releases, discuss their approaches to writing memoir, and talk about why and how they do what they do. A.J. Jacobs is the New York Times bestselling author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically. His latest release, portions of which first appeared in Esquire, is The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an ExperimenT. Rachel Simon is best known for her critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir Riding The Bus With My Sister, which was adapted as a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie. Her new book is Building a Home with My Husband. Laurie Sandell is a contributing editor at Glamour, where she writes cover stories, features, and personal essays. She has also written for Esquire, GQ, New York, and InStyle, among other publications. Her graphic memoir The Impostor’s Daughter: A True Memoir is her first book. Ben Yagoda has been an editor/writer at New Jersey Monthly and Philadelphia Magazine, movie critic at the Philadelphia Daily News, and has written for the Columbia Journalism Review, Dissent, Slate, and Esquire. He teaches journalism in the English Department at the University of Delaware. He spends most of his writing time on books, and occasionally contributes essays and reviews.