Helen Fremont
Writing into Danger: Families, Friends, and Loved Ones
May 15, 2026
11 AM PDT | 12 PM MDT | 1 PM CDT | 2 PM EDT 

As memoirists, we inevitably write about people who are closest to us – our families, friends, and loved ones. The ethics and consequences of exposing others on the page make writing memoir more complicated than most writing projects. Not only do we grapple with the challenges of the writing process, itself – mulling over linguistic choices, narrative sequence, scene construction, dramatic arc of the work – but we must also manage our current feelings and relationships with family and loved ones, and consider how our work may affect them.

In this presentation we’ll discuss our responsibilities as memoir writers, and the pitfalls of telling stories that may upset those closest to us. We’ll offer advice about how to:

• Protect our writing from self-censure and others’ judgement
• Remain true to our story while respecting the privacy of others
• Decide what to include and what to leave out
• Balance the needs of the story with the reactions and demands of loved ones

Helen Fremont is the author of three memoirs: the acclaimed national bestseller After Long Silence, and two award-winning memoirs, The Escape Artist, and Outside the Lines. Her works of fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous publications, including, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The New York Times, Ploughshares, and The Harvard Review. She has been a teaching fellow at both Bread Loaf and the Radcliffe Institute. She was a Scholar in the Women’s Studies Research Center Scholars Program at Brandeis University, and worked as a public defender in Boston, where she now lives with her wife. You can find Helen at www.helenfremont.com.