Old Friend from Far Away

The Practice of Writing Memoir

Natalie Goldberg

• Publisher: Atria Books
• Year: 2008
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781416565055
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

“Memoir writers, buy this book, put it on your personal altar, or carry it with you as you traverse the deep ruts of your old road.” —Tom Spanbauer, author of The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon

Old Friend from Far Away teaches writers how to tap into their unique memories to tell their story.

Twenty years ago Natalie Goldberg’s classic, Writing Down the Bones, broke new ground in its approach to writing as a practice. Now, Old Friend from Far Away—her first book since Writing Down the Bones to focus solely on writing—reaffirms Goldberg’s status as a foremost teacher of writing, and completely transforms the practice of writing memoir.

To write memoir, we must first know how to remember. Through timed, associative, and meditative exercises, Old Friend from Far Away guides you to the attentive state of thought in which you discover and open forgotten doors of memory. At once a beautifully written celebration of the memoir form, an innovative course full of practical teachings, and a deeply affecting meditation on consciousness, love, life, and death, Old Friend from Far Away welcomes aspiring writers of all levels and encourages them to find their unique voice to tell their stories. Like Writing Down the Bones, it will become an old friend to which readers return again and again.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Colophon
• ALSO BY NATALIE GOLDBERG
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Read this Introduction
• Note to Reader
• Go
• I Remember
• Test I
• Test II
• Test III—I Remember
• Test IV
• Test V
• Test VI
• Test VII
• Test VIII
• Test IX
• About the Author