I’m happy that a subject I love (memoir) is a subject I can focus on in my academic life. In my day job as an academic, I’m expected not only to produce creative work, but also scholarly work. I struggle a bit with the latter, in that it doesn’t come easily to me. But the nerdy side of me loves research and digging into academic databases, so I find that work pleasurable. Also, academic work seems a little more clear-cut, with defining parameters to guide it, vs. the anything-goes standard for creative work.

At the moment I’m working on two pieces of academic writing. I’m putting together a book proposal that examines memoirs of women who have been victims of publicized trauma (think Harvey Weinstein, the NXIVM cult, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, etc.).

And I just found out that a book chapter proposal has been accepted for Writing HerStories: Women’s Rock Memoirs, which will come out sometime in 2022. In my chapter, I will take a look at the literary aspects of Patti Smith’s memoirs (Just Kids, M Train, and Year of the Monkey).

I feel like I have finally settled on the defining aspect of my research, after a few years of trying out a few different things. Women’s memoir it is!

It’s nice to have this academic side to my writing. At least there’s some good news there, lol.