A River Runs Through My Memoir-in-Essays

By Beverley Stevens

I have at last found a book—actually two books—that are close to what I envisage for the memoir I’m working on. Finding these models feels like a validation and fuels my not-so-secret hope that my manuscript might be publishable.

When I started writing stories from my life, I decided not to seek out books of memoir from my local library but to continue letting literary fiction lull me off to sleep each night. That resolution, which seems egotistical now, was an attem...