Family Trouble

"For any writer of memoirs . . . a must-read."Publishers Weekly "[Family Trouble is] a well-balanced panoply of family-centric musings from authors conflicted between responsibility and retribution."Kirkus "Those who are writing in the genre would benefit greatly from these authors' self-questions, doubts, and concerns for others whose silences they have broken."Lavona Reeves, Great Plains Quarterly "Writers of memoir will find this book helpful in thinking through their own decisions; readers of memoir will be interested in understanding the anguish that goes on behind the scenes."Laurie Hertzel, Star Tribune The writers in Joy Castros Family Trouble tell moving stories that probe the ethics of our choices and their consequences when we write about our family members. I know Ill be recommending this book to my students for years to come.Lee Martin, author of Such a Life and From Our House What a valuable anthology! And how many times over the years I have taught creative nonfiction would I have reached for this anthology, with its testimonies to the fine lines these writers have drawn, and crossed, and recrossed, and regretted, and celebrated.Mary Clearman Blew, author of This Is Not the Ivy League

Joy Castro is a professor of both English and ethnic studies at the University of NebraskaLincoln. She is the author of several books including Island of Bones (winner of an International Latino Book Award in nonfiction), The Truth Book, and How Winter Began: Stories.

Introduction: Mapping Hope Joy Castro Part 1. Drawing Lines Chewing Band-Aids: One Memoirist's Take on the Telling of Family Secrets Jill Christman Sally Could Delete Whatever She Wanted Paul Austin Case by Case: When It Comes to Family You Still Have to Talk To Mimi Schwartz At Its Center Paul Lisicky The Day I Cried at Starbucks Ruth Behar Memory Lessons Rigoberto Gonzlez The Part I Can't Tell You Ariel Gore Part 2. The Right to Speak What the Little Old Ladies Feel: How I Told My Mother about My Memoir Alison Bechdel Truths We Could Live With Robin Hemley Writing the Black Family Home Faith Adiele The Deeper End of the Quarry: Fiction, Nonfiction, and the Family Dilemma Dinty W. Moore Mama's Voices Susan Olding Living in Someone Else's Closet Susan Ito Part 3. Filling the Silence The True Story Karen Salyer McElmurray I Might Be Famous Ralph James Savarese A Spell against Sorrow: Writing My Father In Judith Ortiz Cofer Things We Don't Talk About Aaron Raz Link You Can't Burn Everything Allison Hedge Coke Done with Grief: The Memoirist's Illusion Sandra Scofield Part 4. Conversations of Hope The Seed Book Stephanie Elizondo Griest Calling Back Lorraine M. Lpez Like Rain on Dust Richard Hoffman The Bad Asian Daughter Bich Minh Nguyen Your Mother Should Know Sue William Silverman Writing about Family Heather Sellers Gratitude Source Acknowledgments Contributors