Self as an Open-Ended Question: Displacement, Narrative Distance, and Spirit Houses in Memoir

A Conversation Between Karen Salyer McElmurray and Sonya Lea

Sonya Lea

Kentuckians Karen Salyer McElmurray and Sonya Lea now live on opposite coasts but met through their publisher, University Press of Kentucky. They read each other’s recent/forthcoming books, and their first conversation afterward was around researching the self, and how we question who we think we are.

Sonya: I’ve been thinking about the themes that we share as writers—home and travel and hardship and healing. One of t...