An Email Interview with Sue William Silverman

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When fiction writer Janice Eidus (see the From Our Correspondents article of 12/12/02) introduced me to the work of nonfiction writer Sue William Silverman, I knew I wanted to find out what she had to say on memoir writing.  After I read both of her memoirs, Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You and Love Sick, One Woman's Journey Through Sexual Addiction, I was not only in deep admiration of her writing and voice, but I also knew she had wrestled deeply not only with her past but with many issues the best memoir writers face.

When you read the following excerpts from her books, you will discover why I knew what Sue William Silverman told us about memoir writing would prove very valuable, especially for those writing memoirs on subjects we think everyone would rather forget about.

When we write from personal experience, we all sometimes ask ourselves, "Who am I to bring this up?" Or we think, "Everyone will hate me if I tell the truth," and then become worried about other people's reactions.  Sometimes we doubt that we are actually remembering correctly and start to second guess ourselves. Other times, we fear that we don't remember enough to write.  Although we could certainly visit places and speak to people and do some research that would jog our memories, we hesitate.  The memoir or personal essays we could write to put together a cohesive, authentic view of our experiences and the way we grew because of them go unwritten, and we remain sorely in need of telling the truth so we can grow. 

Let's read some of Sue William Silverman 's work for inspiration and for the nudge we need to stop keeping ourselves from writing what is most important for us to say.
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