“I do think that memoirs by women are reviewed differently and considered somewhat outside of the canon.” ThinkingMemoirCanon Author:Kate Zambreno
“The memoir by women, read by female readers, is considered a market form, not "great literature."” FormLiteratureReaderFemaleMemoirGreat Literature Author:Kate Zambreno
“The nonfiction novel or literary memoir as authored by women is usually given a much harder time in mainstream criticism.” GivenNovelCriticismHarderMemoirNonfictionMainstream Author:Kate Zambreno
“With fiction, the works of women are often over-interpreted as autobiography, especially when the main character is a woman, especially if she is seen as privileged.” IfsCharacterFictionPrivilegedAutobiographyMain Characters Author:Kate Zambreno
“I think the female first-person is still dismissed, demonized, especially if the book does not end on an empowering note, especially if the main character is perceived as unlikeable, or too privileged.” IfsThinkingFirstsPersonsDoeStillsBookEndsCharacterFemaleNotesEmpoweringPrivilegedFirst PersonMain Characters Author:Kate Zambreno
“I always remember my childhood as traumatic, for various reasons; I always felt alienated, outside.” ReasonRememberFeltChildhoodVarious Author:Kate Zambreno
“For years I lived rather medicated and muted - I did not possess language to describe my vague feelings of unhappiness, to politicize it, to attempt to transcend it.” YearsFeelingsLanguageUnhappinessVague Author:Kate Zambreno
“One of my moments of coming to writing, of needing to write to attempt to create myself, to attempt to absolve and understand my past passivity, came when a girl I loved very much, who I had been estranged from for some time, killed herself.” WritingMomentsPastGirlMy PastPassivity Author:Kate Zambreno
“I hope what I do when I draw from other people's lives is pay tribute. To try to understand what it means in our society to be silenced. To try to understand how class and gender intersect with that. To try to understand how being named and classified within the context of psychiatry can intersect with all that, as well.” PeopleTryingWellsMeanLife IsPayClassDrawsGenderOur SocietyPsychiatryTribute Author:Kate Zambreno
“I think the key to writing the truth of our existences, so much of this is being incubated online, is examining the conflicts and the messiness, our sometimes dividedness, dealing with gender and other hierarchies, and also our identities outside of them, deeply personal and yet somehow critical and circumspect.” ThinkingWritingSometimesExistenceIdentityKeysConflictGenderCriticalOnlineHierarchyExaminingMessiness Author:Kate Zambreno