There were times when I wanted to stop writing the memoir, when I was uncomfortable with what I was writing, or when I worried about what my family would say - but there is no point in writing a memoir if you aren’t going to be completely honest, if you aren’t willing to go to those dark, painful, uncomfortable places. And that was because it made me finally confront my past, and as painful and hard as it was to write about my family and my experiences, I finally found peace. But my fiction never healed me in the way that the memoir healed me. I wrote fiction because it was my way of hiding from the truth. Is it hard to write so publicly and honestly - and sometimes, so harshly - about people so close to you? How do you balance your dedication to the craft, and to the story, and dedication to those around you?īefore I wrote my memoir I wrote two novels that were somewhat autobiographical but fictional nonetheless. In your latest book, The Distance Between Us, you write some very personal and revealing things about your parents. Writing helped me to understand and cope with what was going on around me. By writing those things down I always felt better. I wrote about everything and everyone I had left behind in Mexico.
Once I got a better hold of the language, I continued to write because I discovered that writing was a form of self-expression. for three years and learning English was very difficult. Reyna Grande: When I first started writing at 13, it was my way of trying to learn English more quickly. Little Village: What first drew you to writing? Little Village recently interviewed Grande by email about her memoir, her desire to communicate her perspectives on immigration through writing, and her advice to aspiring writers. Grande lives in Los Angeles with her husband and children, and teaches creative writing at UCLA.
The book was selected by the University of Iowa Center for Human Rights as its 2014 One Community One Book project. The Distance Between Us details Grande’s family life and upbringing in Mexico and the U.S., which she moved to at age nine as an undocumented immigrant. in room C20 of the Pomerantz Center on the University of Iowa campus. Reyna Grande discusses her latest book The Distance Between Us: A Memoir this Saturday as part of the Iowa City Book Festival. Reyna Grande reads at the Iowa City Book Festival on Saturday October 4.
0 kommentar(er)
