StoryDriven: Writing a Biography, Imagining a Life


• Write to Dona Munker at StoryDriven.Net.

• This website is about what goes into telling the story of someone else's life—that is, it's about researching and writing a biography called SARA AND ERSKINE, AN AMERICAN ROMANCE.

I'm interested in what a "story" is (as opposed to "plot"). I'm also interested in what it means tell a life story in nonfiction, through the interpretation of information and evidence alone.

Most of all, I'm interested in the intersection of research and the literary imagination of the writer. I think a lot about how a writer trying to visualize another person's life can use information and evidence to create a narrative solely by interpreting the evidence a life leaves behind, as well as about the limitations of interpretation.

I also think a lot about what the story that drives me to write has to say about the human condition. Including mine.

If you're interested in any of these things, please visit the "Articles" page archive or my article on "Finding Our Voice" on my Daughter of Persia: A Reader's Guide page (sidebar).

If you'd like to be notified about future developments on this website, please enter your e-mail address in the SIGNUP BOX in the sidebar of the "Articles" page, then click on the automatic confirmation link that arrives in your e-mail and your name will be added to the notification list.


     • My articles from NEWSLETTER: IMAGINING A LIFE AND THE CRAFT OF BIOGRAPHY are a resource for practicing biographers, journalists, students, teachers, researchers, and readers. They examine the pleasures, challenges, and problems of imagining a life and constructing a narrative in biography and biographical nonfiction.

       You can read these articles by going to the ARCHIVE in the sidebar.

         Also on this website: "Finding Our Voice," an account of writing an actual biographical narrative.



        BOOKS:



        Sara Bard Field and Charles Erskine Scott Wood in 1920, after their "free union" on San Francisco's Russian Hill. I am reconstructing Sara Bard Field's life and their extraordinary May-December love affair in SARA AND ERSKINE, AN AMERICAN ROMANCE. (In progress.)



        • "Lyrical and enchanting....Beautifully written." —The New York Times Book Review.



        SITE MAP
        ~ StoryDriven ~
        Writing a Biography, Imagining a Life

        Scroll down or use the sidebars to navigate to pages on this website.


        On WRITING BIOGRAPHY and IMAGINING A LIFE:

           • ARTICLES on the pleasures, challenges, and practical problems of imagining a life and writing a narrative.

           • "Finding Our Voice."© About creating a narrator for the book, DAUGHTER OF PERSIA.

        (Back to top)

        BIOGRAPHY:



        The Story of SARA BARD FIELD and CHARLES ERSKINE SCOTT WOOD
         
            SARA AND ERSKINE, AN AMERICAN ROMANCE (in progress) is a psychological biography of SARA BARD FIELD a Baptist minister's wife who, through love and her own determined will, forged herself into a modern woman with a career as a national suffragist and women's rights advocate, an admired California poet, and an "anarchist and free-lover."

            Using oral history interviews and thousands of letters, SARA AND ERSKINE will reconstruct and interpret in detail the emotional evolution of this fascinating woman and her long and celebrated love affair with the Oregon civil liberties attorney and writer CHARLES ERSKINE SCOTT WOOD.

        (Back to top)


        BIOGRAPHICAL NONFICTION:

        DAUGHTER OF PERSIA

               In this riveting book, American writer Dona Munker and her Iranian subject and co-author tell a unique life story: the dramatic career and pioneering achievements of an astonishing Iranian social reformer, Sattareh Farman Farmaian.

              The product of a fortunate cross-cultural literary collaboration, DAUGHTER OF PERSIA: A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem through the Islamic Revolution is both memoir and historical journalism: an imaginative yet faithful reconstruction of the life and times of one of the most remarkable women the Middle East has produced.

               Timely and absorbing, DAUGHTER OF PERSIA opens a personal window on Iran and America's involvement in the six tumultuous decades that laid the foundations of the crisis facing the United States and the West today.

              • To order DAUGHTER OF PERSIA, click on the cover image in the sidebar.

          (Back to top)

          REVIEWERS on DAUGHTER OF PERSIA

                DAUGHTER OF PERSIA: A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem Through the Islamic Revolution has been continuously in print in the United States and abroad since its publication in 1992, translated into five foreign languages, adopted by numerous book groups and college courses in the United States and Britain, and read by over a quarter of a million people worldwide. What book critics, Middle East experts, writers, and ordinary readers have said.

            (Back to top)

            A READER'S GUIDE to DAUGHTER OF PERSIA
             
                DAUGHTER OF PERSIA: A Woman's Journey from Her Father's Harem through the Islamic Revolution is the product of an imaginative collaboration between Dona Munker, an American writer, and the remarkable Persian aristocrat and social reformer, Sattareh Farman Farmaian.

                • Read about creating a narrator for DAUGHTER OF PERSIA in an article, "Finding Our Voice." Also: A Writer's Perspective on Daughter of Persia (discussion questions for reading groups) and Recommendations for reading about Sattareh Farman Farmaian's Iran.

            (Back to top)

            LINKS and RECOMMENDATIONS

            • Books and websites of related interest. • Recommendations for help with writing a biography book proposal.

            (Back to top)

            Picture Credits:

            • Center: Detail from 1920 photograph of Sara Bard Field and C.E.S. Wood by W. E. Dassonville reproduced with permission of the Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley. • Women by M. A. Taraghijeh, reproduced by permission of M.A. Taraghijeh. • Sidebar: • Typewriter courtesy of Prof. Theodore Brown and the National Library of Medicine (also NEWSLETTER page). • Sara Bard Field and C.E.S. Wood by W. E. Dassonville reproduced with permission of the Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley.


            (Back to top)


            Notice of Copyright:

                • All material on this website Copyright © 2005-2010 by Dona Munker except where expressly stated or contributed by others. Copying, altering, or reproducing this material in any form without written permission is prohibited by law and may be prosecuted regardless of the venue or purpose of the copying.









                            Biography:
                            The Story of SARA BARD FIELD and CHARLES ERSKINE SCOTT WOOD
                                  SARA AND ERSKINE, AN AMERICAN ROMANCE (in progress) is about a search for love that turned a Baptist minister's wife into a nationally known suffragist and women's rights advocate, a California poet, and an "anarchist and free-lover."
                                    Biographical Nonfiction:
                                        DAUGHTER OF PERSIA
                                          A timely, riveting account of the life and work of an extraordinary Iranian aristocrat and social reformer, Sattareh Farman Farmaian, DAUGHTER OF PERSIA is at once memoir and historical journalism. It opens a personal window on Iran and America's involvement in the six tumultuous decades that laid the foundations of the crisis facing the United States and the West today.
                                                REVIEWERS on DAUGHTER OF PERSIA
                                                  What critics, Middle East experts, writers, and general readers have said about Daughter of Persia.
                                                      A READER'S GUIDE to DAUGHTER OF PERSIA
                                                        • Article: "Finding Our Voice."
                                                        • Discovering the right literary "voice" for Daughter of Persia.
                                                          • For Reading Groups:
                                                              • A Writer's Perspective on Daughter of Persia Reading Group Questions.
                                                                • Reading Recommendations. A personal selection.
                                                              • LINKS and RECOMMENDATIONS
                                                                Books and websites of related interest. • For first-time biographers: Helpful guides to writing a biography book proposal.