Acetylene Torch Songs

Sue William Silverman is an award-winning memoirist, essayist, and poet of eight books, including Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction (made into a Lifetime TV movie) and How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences (Nebraska, 2020). She teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

"I've read a fair amount of creative nonfiction craft books, recommended many of them, and taught many of them, but none have felt so much like a craft class as Sue William Silverman's Acetylene Torch Songs."-Whitney (Walters) Jacobson, Split Rock Review "Acetylene Torch Songs reminded me of why I write and motivated me to rebirth some of the more confessional pieces I'd shelved. It made me not just want to be a better writer, but to do the kind of soul work that creates 'writing that burns through, no matter what it finds.'"-Lisa Cooper Ellison, Hippocampus "Our obsessions haunt us, and writing helps us to contend with what Silverman calls our 'shadowy ghosts,' the darker aspects of ourselves. . . . These lessons and examples [in Acetylene Torch Songs] show how we can take what keeps us up at night and shape it into something that not only longer controls us, but can potentially help others to heal."-Lilith Magazine “This wonderful book is unique in my experience: writing advice not from Olympus but from a kind, wise, human guide who has learned how to translate her experience into art and who shows us how we can, too. Beginners and veteran writers alike have much to learn from Silverman.”-Clifford Thompson, author of What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man’s Blues “Silverman reclaims and honors the disparaged term ‘confessional,’ encouraging writers to use their passions, hauntings, and experiences as fuel for quality nonfiction. Snapping with bright fire, this new craft guide is also a guide for the soul: audacious, pulsing with life, and sure to inspire.”-Sonya Huber, author of Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto “Acetylene Torch Songs is precisely what you’d expect from the wondrous Sue William Silverman. This is no mere manual but an essential lodestar for artists of nonfiction, a book with a vision that will be a game-changer for writers who wish to do as Silverman herself does so well: to daringly reveal the ecstasies and darknesses that dwell at the hub of us.”-William Giraldi, author of The Hero’s Body and American Audacity “Sue William Silverman’s Acetylene Torch Songs is a gift for creative nonfiction writers, and a guiding light: offering a holistic and hands-on approach to writing our memories, our obsessions, and ourselves. This is a gorgeous book of body and mind, of heart and soul. In the truest sense it’s also a torch: one we might carry with us as we write, as we dig into the dark corners of our lives, making our stories burn bright.”-Melissa Faliveno, author of Tomboyland “Acetylene Torch Songs will burn its way through everything you thought you knew about craft and seduce you into a spell of curiosity and revelation. This is one of the best books on writing truth as art I’ve ever read. From now on it will be by my side as I open up the world of memoir writing to my students.”-Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers and award-winning author of Don’t Call Me Mother

• The Hammer OverturePart 1. Lighting the Flame1. “Body and Soul”: Writing Fiery, Holistic Prose2. “Thanks for the Memory”: Bringing the Past to Life3. “Ghost Riders in the Sky”: Writing What Haunts You4. “Behind the Mask”: On Revealing the Sequined Self5. “Voices inside My Head”: The Multitudinous Sounds of Voice6. “The Long and Winding Road”: Some Thoughts on Narrative Structure7. “Come Together”: Strategies to Craft an Essay CollectionPart 2. Feeling the Flame8. “Respect”: Confessional Writing as Resistance9. “You Don’t Own Me”: On Writing Controversial or Disturbing Literature10. “Do You Want to Know a Secret?”: I Love Confessional Writing11. “Look through Any Window”: Memoir with a ViewBonus TracksSue’s EZ Rules to Write ByOn Trifles: Things You Might Not Think to Write AboutAfterWordAcknowledgmentsAppendix 1. Deconstructed EssayAppendix 2. Additional Writing PromptsAppendix 3. Strategies to Write a Query LetterAppendix 4. Two Sample Book ProposalsAppendix 5. A List of Useful WebsitesBrief Notes on Chapter TitlesNotes