Foster discusses memoirs

Acclaimed non-fiction writer Patricia Foster visited Georgia College & State University last week, sharing her “life through a page.”

Foster read to a full house last Monday night at the Arts & Sciences Auditorium, opting to read from selected unfinished works, rather than from her latest memoir, “Just beneath My Skin.”

“I thought it was great,” said Angie Mellor, English major and MFA student. “It’s nice to hear something that’s not really refined because as a writer, you know you’re not the only one trying to make revisions.”

“Just beneath My Skin,” a collection of essays released in 2004 by the University of Georgia press, explores the concept of self-examination through autobiography, and serves as a follow-up to Foster’s previous memoir, 2000′s “All the Lost Girls: Confessions of a Southern Daughter.”

“I wanted to look at coming to girlhood in a slightly different way in this book, and what happens when you move beyond that,” said Foster. “I also wanted to explore writing that comes from both the mind and soul because if you stay in your head it can be so cerebral, but if you stay only in the heart, it can be all emotion without discrimination.”

Foster said “Just beneath My Skin” was based on her experiences as an instructor at Tuskegee University in Alabama and that one of the book’s themes focuses on race and culture.

“While living in Iowa, I decided that I wanted to go back to Alabama, but in a different way, so I went to Tuskegee,” Foster said. “I was the only white girl, and it was a kind of an awakening for me to be the ‘other’ and have fellowship with people, coming to know them, and also, to come to know myself in a different way.”

Dr. Karen McElmurray, GC&SU creative writing professor and author of her own memoirs, coordinated the event.

“Her [Foster's] visit to campus was encouraging and refreshing,” said McElmurray. “For me, it underscores the importance of going deeper in the work we do as writers.”

Foster grew up in Foley, Ala., a small town near the Gulf Shores, before moving to Los Angeles to attend art school at UCLA. It wasn’t until later, while living in Seattle, that she became “obsessed” with writing.

“I never considered myself a writer-in fact, I wanted to be a dancer first, then a visual artist,” said Foster. “One day, I was just reading ‘As I Lay Dying,’ and I got up from my bed and said, ‘I want to do that.’ So, I went into my room and wrote my first short story.”

Foster called the University of Washington, and though she had no money, she managed to find one English professor who agreed to let her attend lectures as an auditor.

“I had no dialogue and no sense of scene,” said Foster, “but I was completely hooked.”

From there, she moved on to the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and eventually, Florida State University, where she received a Ph.D. in women’s literature and creative writing. In 1994, Foster published her first book, an anthology titled, “Minding the Body: Women Writers on Body and Soul.”

Foster said she began writing memoirs at the advice of a friend, and now she considers them an important aspect of our culture.

“I was drawn to the idea that one could write without using the lens of fiction,” said Foster. “We often live very fractured, distant lives, and being able to make a coherent life through writing is incredibly appealing.”

With the recent scandal involving best-selling author James Frey’s “A Million Little Pieces” and newfound skepticism surrounding memoir writing, the timeliness of Foster’s visit did not go unnoticed.

Foster said she had not read Frey’s book, but that she had considered the controversy.

“We all realize memory is fictional in a certain way,” said Foster. “In order to shape a story, I find some facts are not incidental but small moments, and I feel comfortable saying, ‘yes, create that.’ Where I draw the line is creating events that have emotional leverage your life didn’t have, and that’s where it gets tricky.”

According to Foster, writing non-fiction, particularly memoirs, requires a connection to the reader based on trust.

“In a novel, we’re interested in a character, and how that character resolves conflict,” she said. “In a memoir, we’re interested in the same thing, but the transaction between the reader and the writer is that the life happened. It’s not just about experience, but what lies beneath that experience.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 3 2006. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry