The Six-Minute Memoir: Fifty-Five Short Essays on Life (Bur Oak Book)

This collection of short essays delivers more joy than many books twice its size. Culled from two decades' worth of Mary Helen Stefaniak's "Alive and Well" column in the Iowa Source , each essay invites readers into the ordinary life of a woman "with a family and friends and a job . . . and a series of cats and a history living in one old house after another at the turn of the twenty-first century in the middle of the Middle West." One great aunt presides over nineteen acres of pecan grove profitably strewn with junk. A borrowed hammer rings with the sound of immortality. Famous poets pipe up where you least expect them. Living and dying are found to be two sides of the same remarkable coin. What's more, writing prompts at the end of the book invite readers to search their own lives for such moments—the kind that could be forgotten but instead are turned, by the gift of perspective and perfectly chosen detail, into treasure. The Six-Minute Memoir encourages people to tell their own stories even if they think they don't have the kind of story that belongs in a memoir.

This collection of short essays delivers more joy than many books twice its size. Culled from two decades' worth of Mary Helen Stefaniak's "Alive and Well" column in the Iowa Source, each essay invites readers into the ordinary life of a woman "with a family and friends and a job... and a series of cats and a history living in one old house after another at the turn of the twenty-first century in the middle of the Middle West." One great aunt presides over nineteen acres of pecan grove profitably strewn with junk. A borrowed hammer rings with the sound of immortality. Famous poets pipe up where you least expect them. Living and dying are found to be two sides of the same remarkable coin.What's more, writing prompts at the end of the book invite readers to search their own lives for such moments—the kind that could be forgotten but instead are turned, by the gift of perspective and perfectly chosen detail, into treasure. The Six-Minute Memoir encourages people to tell their own stories even if they think they don't have the kind of story that belongs in a memoir.

"Essays that Stefaniak wrote over the course of twenty years for the Iowa Source magazine. The book is called The Six-Minute Memoir because she read many of the essays as six-minute commentaries on Iowa Public Radio. The manuscript also encourages readers to try writing six-minute memoirs of their own, with guided prompts at the end. Readers will find themselves laughing out loud as Mary Helen learns to scuba dive, tries to communicate in Mandarin, and describes a peppermint flying out of her husband's mouth. These essays are full of stress-relieving hilarity and joy, as well as Stefaniak's warm insights into life and family. The Six-Minute Memoir is for readers of Bailey White and Claire Dederer, Nora Ephron and E. B. White"-- Provided by publisher Culled from two decades' worth of Mary Helen Stefaniak's 'Alive and Well' column in the Iowa Source, each essay in this collection invites readers into the life of a woman 'with a family and friends and a job . . . and a history living in one old house after another at the turn of the twenty-first century in the middle of the Middle West.'