Christine Edwards

Christine Edwards asked Frances Mayes:

I really enjoyed your new memoir. I was wondering, do you find it difficult to write about your past in so much detail? People are always saying to write what you know, but it seems it would be a challenge to delve into the less beautiful parts of our pasts and put it out there for the world to know without any fictionalization.

Frances Mayes It was a great pleasure to recover the details of my growing up years in Under Magnolia. I am a visually oriented person and as a writer I love to try to recreate in words something seen. All sensory experience, for me, gives life to words when you can find the right ones. Writing about hard times is personally freeing. When you find the right context for the "less beautiful" it somehow tames those experiences.

More Answered Questions

Reggie

Reggie asked Frances Mayes:

Hi Frances-thanks for taking our questions! I have enjoyed reading your books about travel and living in Italy. I have a long running fascination with Italy and hope to visit someday. I am wondering if you could recommend a specific place to stay in the area of Cortona to really experience small town Italian life as you did. Thanks, and I look forward to reading your memoir soon. Reggie

Donna

Donna asked Frances Mayes:

Just finished Under Magnlia and appreciate the emotional courage it took to write this. Wonder if your writing has been the primary means of your healing or whether you've done other things in your life to move beyond your hurt,

Liz V

Liz V asked Frances Mayes:

I also wonder what kind of travel writing you prefer and why: fiction or nonfiction?

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