Author of three memoirs of her own, Mary Karr synthesizes her expertise as graduate writing professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and "black belt sinner," providing an irreverent window into the mechanics and art of the form. Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process. In addition, all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends after writing about them get told -- and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth. As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past. Anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.

For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning graduate teaching prizes for her highly selective seminar at Syracuse, where she mentored such future hit authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas. In this, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and 'black belt sinner', providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.