Author Archives: first person productions
Getting My Mantra
In early 1975 I transferred to Franklin College, a tiny Baptist school in central Indiana where I knew no one. I began slowly to win acceptance into the “hippie circle,” the small subset of the 700 on-campus students who smoked … Continue reading
A Funny Thing Happened On My Way To The Mikvah
by Melodee Leven Currier According to Jewish law, a child is considered Jewish only if the mother is Jewish because you always know who the mother is, but you don’t always know who the father is. My parents were like … Continue reading
An Ode to Neville
By Jules Sanderson This is a reflective piece, looking back at my time as a student, sharing a house with one of my best friends. We are best friends, bonded together in that intense, competitive form female friendships sometimes take … Continue reading
Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret, by Steve Luxenberg
It’s been a while since I posted a book review! Life hasn’t allowed me much time for reading. But at the recent Association of Personal Historians conference, Steve Luxenberg presented a keynote about Annie’s Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret, in which he described a … Continue reading
Sarah White and Erin Farrell Adamany talk travel writing with Carol Koby
I have been working with Erin Farrell Adamany on her memoir about a fascinating 5-week trip to Morocco with her mother and two children. We were recently interviewed on Carok Koby’s radio show, “All About Living.” The program allowed me … Continue reading
Mother’s Circus
By Donna Biddle When I went grade school in Terre Haute, Indiana in the 1940s, schools had more leeway as to when you went to school and what could be a reason to let school out early. I particularly remember … Continue reading
Dave Isay of StoryCorps receives $1million TED Prize
This is a banner day for personal history! (Or rather, yesterday was, when the news was released.) Read about the TED Prize given to Dave Isay here. Why am I so excited about David Isay, StoryCorps Founder, receiving this fantastically generous financial … Continue reading
The Sharpshooter
By Joan T. Zeier When I was growing up on our Columbia County farm, changes came slowly, if at all. Same landscape, same cycle of seasons, same activities, year after year. Even inside our farmhouse I can visualize the placement … Continue reading
Scattered Drops of Rain
By Doug Elwell The little village of Pinhook is a speck almost lost in the boundless patchwork quilt of corn and bean fields that covers the east central Illinois prairie. In the mid-fifties there was Ike. The boys were back from … Continue reading
True Stories Well Told 
If you’re going to change the names, change the names…
Publisher to Make a Change in Lena Dunham’s Book — A New York Times article on 12/10/14 reported that a chapter in Lena Dunham’s book Not That Kind of Girl has caused a kerfluffle. Seems that a guy named Barry thinks he’s the guy … Continue reading →