Interview with Marya Hornbacher: Author of the Pulitzer-Nominated Memoir, “Wasted” (Part 2)

Photo: Marya Hornbacher

No more babbling, I’m getting right to the good stuff. Here’s part of my interview with author Marya Hornbacher from this past Wednesday.

How do you define memoir?

Literary truth telling. Memoir is not autobiography. It’s about a specific period or thing in someone’s life. My life is not terribly interesting, but a couple of interesting things have happened to me.

Why did you write “Wasted?”

Interview with Marya Hornbacher: Author of the Pulitzer-Nominated Memoir, “Wasted” (Part 1)

Photo: Borders

Wednesday morning, I sat at my desk telling myself I wasn’t dreaming. I had the phone number of my favorite author, Marya Hornbacher, 36, dialed on my phone. All I needed to do was press “send.”

Almost ten minutes later I was still sitting there, still holding my phone. It was 10:17 am and we had agreed I would call her at 10:15. I panicked that Hornbacher would think I had forgotten her. I pushed “send” before another minute could pass.

I don’t particularly like talking on the phone, especially with people I do not know. I still throw a fit every time my mom asks me to call my grandma to tell her we’re running late.

Modern Memoir: Are Blogs the New Memoirs?

Photo: Amazon

In my very first post, I mentioned that Marya Hornbacher‘s “Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia” is my favorite memoir and–although I still don’t believe it–she’s agreed to speak with me later this week.

What sets Hornbacher’s memoir apart from others I’ve read is her ability to share painful memories and raw details with her readers without appearing to over sensationalize them. “Wasted” was published in 1998, but even read in the post-James Frey world there is no doubt that Hornbacher is being honest in her writing.

Recently I’ve discovered a new world, a world that reminds me of Hornbacher’s. Mostly women (and a few men) with different psychological disorders and addictions are taking to blogging to aid in their recovery. Known as “recovery blogs,” people use these sites to write daily or every few days about the status of their recovery.