From her Q & A with Jasmine Elist at the Jacket Copy blog:
This is the second memoir you have written -- what drives your impulse toward memoir?--Marshal Zeringue
Memoir requires a rugged honesty of the self, which I feel is the only thing I have completely within my power — the truth of the self. Memoir appeals to me because it forces us to think about “truth” — each person has a different one — and about how the use of the self is a creative act.
How did your two experiences writing memoirs vary and in what ways were they similar? Did you find that one was more challenging to write?
"Her Last Death," my first book, was very difficult because in order to render the story of me and my mother with emotional accuracy I had to immerse myself in ancient pain. But it poured out. "She Matters," while not as treacherous in terrain, was trickier because it concerned a greater number of relationships, which demanded a different sort of balancing act for the book as a whole. I don’t think writing one book teaches you how to write others, though; each book is its own mad universe.
What is it about female relationships that intrigues you more than your relationships with the men in your life?
Women just get into it faster, more deliciously and with more...[read on]
