Even though Mary Karr has called memoir “a bastard,” and “an ugly little genre,” she’s also its biggest defender and champion. This interview, which kicks off the third year of Write-minded, covers some of the big topics that weigh on memoirists’ minds about truth and whether to fictionalize, as well as the importance of sensory details and why memoir is so popular despite its complex reputation. And since we reference Brooke’s 2015 onstage interview with Mary, we’re enclosing the link here, just in case, like us, you wish you could spend a little more time listening to Mary: https://youtu.be/PfdQutk506A