memoirs

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Patti Smith Announces New Memoir, Did ‘People Have the Power’ For East Village

Last time we saw Patti Smith do “People Have the Power,” she was on stage with Miley Cyrus, Laurie Anderson, Debbie Harry and pretty much every other New York City music legend — and before that she was belting it out with Michael Stipe and James Franco. But she and Lenny Kaye kept it lean and mean at last night’s benefit at Theatre 80 for the victims of the East Village explosion. Check out the above footage posted to YouTube by Sandy Bachon.

Today it was announced that Smith will release a sequel to her memoir, Just Kids, on October 6. Here’s the publisher Knopf’s description, via the Amazon page.

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Novelist Brando Skyhorse Wrote a Memoir That’s Truly Stranger Than Fiction

(Photo: Kirsten O'Regan)

Brando Skyhorse at home. (Photo: Kirsten O’Regan)

If you’re always complaining about your messed-up childhood and your wacko family, then you might want to read Brando Skyhorse’s memoir, Take this Man, for some perspective. Skyhorse, whose novel The Madonnas of Echo Park earned him the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award, grew up in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Although entirely Mexican-American by descent, he was raised by his compulsively colorful mother (assisted by his grandmother and five successive eccentric stepfathers) to believe that he was a Native American.
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A Guide to North Brooklyn For Aspiring Twentysomething Female Memoirists

Now that you’ve read the with Ashley Cardiff, you’re probably thinking, “Hey, I’m in my 20s and all about North Brooklyn, too! How can I write a memoir. Ashley’s here to show you how.

Note: those kittens are more than just cute.

Note: those kittens are more than just cute.

So you’ve just graduated from a small liberal arts college — English major, art history minor — and the only way you can realize your ambitions of being a successful writer is paying some outlandish Brooklyn rents. Granted, you’re all of 22, have lived in no discernibly interesting way and haven’t even gained enough distance from your adult relationships to analyze them with any clarity. Most offensive of all, you’re a lady (people don’t really get outraged at dudes for writing about themselves).

…Lucky for you, though, you’re young, look great in selfies, and you’re more than willing to churn out 3,000 words about your first threesome. For those ladies who relish confessional writing as much as they love spending $12 on a jar of pickles — here’s a helpful guide from one twentysomething female writer to another.
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Ashley Cardiff On Writing About Sex, Dating, Puberty and Other Alarming Things

Ashley at her native drinking hole, Shayz Lounge (Photo: Natalie Rinn)

Ashley at her native drinking hole, Shayz Lounge (Photo: Natalie Rinn)

Ashley Cardiff — incisive, often hilarious voice from The Gloss — released a book this month called Night Terrors: Sex, Dating, Puberty and Other Alarming Things. As you might guess from the title, the 27-year-old Williamsburger’s essay collection recounts her experiences with sexual development and peripheral subjects like pick-up artists, pubic hair and masturbation. The stories span her time from a precocious yungun’ in California to a disillusioned editorial assistant in New York City.
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