##### Here are some texts you could choose for one of the [[assignments for memoir]] (or to read just for your own enjoyment). [“Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas](https://poets.org/poem/fern-hill) > Wikipedia says, “Fern Hill (1945) is a poem by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, first published in the October, 1945, *Horizon* magazine, with its first book publication as the last poem in *Deaths and Entrances.* The house Fernhill is just outside Llangain in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Thomas had extended stays here in the 1920s with his aunt Annie and her husband, Jim Jones, and wrote about the house in his short story, The Peaches. His holidays here have been recalled in interviews with his schoolboy friends, and both the house and the Thomas family network in the area are detailed in the same book.” So yes, this is [[poetry]], and so are some of the other examples I have put here for you—there’s a lot of overlap in the different forms and genres of writing! [“Who do you want to be?”](https://kottke.org/21/10/who-do-you-want-to-be) from a commencement address by Hannah Gadsby > “I’m autistic and as such, anxiety is only ever going to be my constant companion. But honestly I don’t know how it’s possible not to be anxious in this world in this moment, unless you’re dead inside and we don’t want that. When my spouse lady Jenney sees me struggling in a whirlygig of anxiety, she has taken to asking me this question: ‘Don’t panic. Who do you want to be?’” [“Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon](http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html) > “In response to the fear- and hate-mongering alive in our country today, I have joined Julie Landsman—a writer, teacher, and activist based in Minneapolis—to create the ‘I Am From Project’. Through our website (iamfromproject.com) and Facebook page, we’re collecting art from around the country prompted by that theme. You can listen to our [interview on the National Writing Project radio here](https://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/4673).” [*Bird by Bird* by Anne Lamott](https://drive.google.com/open?id=11wqT30xJ9hgTIG9DEyiaNiflkixqkavJ&authuser=mschulte%40waukesha.k12.wi.us&usp=drive_fs) > I already put this in the “Textbooks” button of the class, but I thought it would be a good one to highlight for this week particularly. *Bird by Bird* is a book about the practice of writing, but it is also an engaging example of [[memoir]]. It’s full of inspiring writing advice delivered with empathy and a great sense of humor. Read this if you need to get “unstuck!” [Frederick Douglass, Ash Cake and the Rich Man’s Table; an excerpt from *My Bondage and My Freedom* (1855)](https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-eng-101-college-writing-i/chapter/frederick-douglass-ash-cake-and-the-rich-man/) > Frederick Douglass’s story is amazing, in case you didn’t know that already. This excerpt is from a book that’s less famous than [*Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.*](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23). I was reminded of it by an installation at Milwaukee Art Museum. I read it on the wall next to some fancy furniture: “Neither to the wicked, nor to the idler, is there any solid peace: ‘Troubled, like the restless sea.’” See also [[describe the heck outta something]]. [50 Short Memoirs - Examples of Narrative Personal Essays by Famous Authors](https://tetw.org/Memoir) > Well this is pretty cool. A compendium of short memoirs, with what seem to be links to the full texts (from various sources). [21 Memøir Examples to Inspire Your Own](https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/memoir/memoir-examples/) > There are some great suggestions for memoirs to read on your own listed here. [The 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/26/books/best-memoirs.html) > As it says on the site, “The New York Times’s book critics select the most outstanding memoirs published since 1969.”