The Business of Memory The Art of Remembering in an Age of Forgetting

In the current information age, "memory" is as likely to be an attribute of a computer as a human being. InGraywolf Forum Three: The Business of Memory, editor Charles Baxter invites twelve creative writers to contemplate the externalization of what was once so deeply personal. The resulting essays address a provocative range of topics: the explosion of interest in the memoir; the recovered-memory movement; America in the grip of an "amnesia plague;" the need for coherent stories of our past to help us organize our present; and forgetfulness--political, cultural, and literary--and the shame and allure it holds. Throughout, these fascinating pieces illuminate the art of remembering in a time when memory has become a highly measurable commodity. Contributors: Charles Baxter Richard Bausch Karen Brennan Bernard Cooper Lydia Davis Steve Erickson Alvin Greenberg Patricia Hampl Margot Livesey James A. McPherson Victoria Morrow Michael Ryan Sylvia Watanabe Charles Baxteris the author of several books, includingBurning Down the HouseandBelievers. He has been honored with an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Baxter lives in Ann Arbor and teaches at the University of Michigan. In the current Information Age, "memory" is as likely to be a computer attribute as a human one. For this essay collection, the esteemed fiction writer and essayist Charles Baxter invited twelve other writers to contemplate the externalization of what was once so deeply personal. These pieces thus address a provocative range of topics: the recent explosion of interest in memoirs; the recovered-memory movement; America in the grip of an "amnesia plague"; the need for coherent stories of our past to help us organize our present; and forgetfulnesspolitical, cultural, and literaryand the shame as well as the allure that it holds. Throughout, these fascinating writings illuminate the art of remembering at a time when memory has become a highly measurable commodity. Contributors: Charles Baxter Richard Bausch Karen Brennan Bernard Cooper Lydia Davis Steve Erickson Alvin Greenberg Patricia Hampl Margot Livesey James A. McPherson Victoria Morrow Michael Ryan Sylvia Watanabe "For anyone involved in the art of introspection, this slim, articulate volume is unforgettable."Kirkus Reviews "Beautifully written essays that deftly explore the act of memoir-making and the art of storytelling. Ranging from tales of trauma and loss to quotidian and even banal events, they probe the tension between memory and forgetting and the mysteries of how we do each."Library Journal

Charles Baxter is the author of several books, including Burning Down the House and Believers. He has been honored with an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Baxter lives in Ann Arbor and teaches at the University of Michigan.