Memoirist Mary Karr on digging for deeper truths
Mary Karr reflects on telling our most intimate stories, the pain they can cause for both the writer and their loved ones, and why the genre has become such a publishing success.
Mary Karr believes in the art of memoir-writing so deeply that she literally wrote the book on it.
The essayist and memoirist is the author of the newly-published The Art of Memoir, an exploration of the genre that's been burning up bestseller lists in recent years.
Karr says that for her, memoir-writing is about digging for the deeper psychological truths behind the stories — even if those truths conflict with what you thought you remembered.
"People are hungry for reality," she tells guest host Sook-Yin Lee. "The conversation about truth has actually been hijacked by liars."