Ryan Van Cleave - Memoir Writing For Dummies

Memoir Writing For Dummies

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Van Cleave, Ryan G. Memoir writing for dummies / Ryan Van Cleave.

(--For dummies)
Includes index.
Issued also in electronic formats.
ISBN 978-1-118-41464-4

1. Autobiography--Authorship. I. Title. II. Series:
For dummies

CT25.V37 2013 808.06692 C2012-908419-0

ISBN 978-1-118-41464-4 (pbk); 978-1-118-41466-8 (ebk); 978-1-118-41467-5 (ebk); 978-1-118-41465-1 (ebk)

Printed in the United States

About the Author

Ryan G. Van Cleave is the award-winning author of 20 books, including two creative writing textbooks, an illustrated humor book, and a memoir. Ryan graduated from Florida State University with an MA and PhD in English. He then taught at such places as Clemson University, Eckerd College, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as at prisons, community centers, and urban at-risk youth facilities. His literary honors include a Gold Medal in the Florida Book Awards, a Edward H. and Marie C. Kingsbury Fellowship at Florida State University, the Anastasia C. Hoffman Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madisons Institute for Creative Writing, and the Jenny McKean Moore Writer-in-Washington Fellowship at George Washington University, among others.

Ryan currently works as a freelance writer, a writing coach, an international speaker on video games and digital media, a professor of liberal arts and coordinator of creative writing at the Ringling College of Art and Design, and the executive director of a nonprofit publishing house, C&R Press ( www.crpress.org ) that he co-founded in 2006. Check out Ryans website at www.ryangvancleave.com .

Dedication

To the many writing students of all ages who have ever entered my classroom, let Writing Memoir For Dummies serve as my answer to your two most common questions: Is my life worth writing about? Do I have what it takes to write a memoir? (The answers are yes and yes!)

Author Acknowledgments

I want to thank the many individuals whose efforts, commitment, and expertise helped make this book better at every stage of its development. Specifically, I thank the fine people at Wiley who immediately recognized the value of a book on memoir writing, including Anam Ahmed, Chad Sievers, Therese Garnett, and Erika Zupko. Heartfelt thanks also to my talented technical editor Dinty Moore, a gifted teacher and writer whose memoir Between Panic & Desire is a lesson itself in how to write memoirs.

I also thank my wife Victoria and our kids Valerie and Veronica for holding down the fort during the months it took to research and write the book you now hold in your hands.

Publishers Acknowledgments

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Associate Acquisitions Editor: Anam Ahmed

Production Editor: Pamela Vokey

Project Editor: Chad R. Sievers

Copy Editor: Chad R. Sievers

Editorial Assistant: Kathy Deady

Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( http://www.the5thwave.com )

Cover photo: Barbara Ferra Fotografia / Getty Images (main image); Dave White / iStockphoto ( SD card); Agnieszka Kirinicjanow / iStockphoto (photo of children)

Composition Services

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Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers

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Indexer: Palmer Publishing Services

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