Memoir as Life Lesson: Santa Barbara Literary Festival

Memoir is more than the act of remembering—it is a way of making meaning. Memoir as Life Lesson brings together four acclaimed authors to explore how writing personal truth can illuminate larger lessons about identity, resilience, healing, and change.

Featuring Marcia Aldrich, Grace Prasad, Susan Ito, and Christine Hyung-Oak Lee, this panel examines how memoirists shape lived experience into narrative, and how the process of writing can transform both author and reader. Panelists will discuss craft choices, ethical considerations, and the emotional work of revisiting the past, as well as the unexpected insights that emerge when we put our stories on the page.

Designed for writers, readers, and anyone drawn to personal storytelling, this conversation offers thoughtful reflection on why memoir matters—and how the stories we tell ourselves can become guides for living with greater clarity, compassion, and purpose.

Susan Kiyo Ito is the author of the memoir, I Would Meet You Anywhere, published by the Ohio State University Press. It was a finalist for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle Award, shortlisted for the Saroyan Prize for International Literature, and named a best book of 2023 by the Library Journal. She co-edited the literary anthology A Ghost At Heart’s Edge: Stories & Poems of Adoption.

Christine Hyung-Oak Lee is the author of a memoir, Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember (Ecco / Harper Collins), which was featured in The New York Times, Time, and NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. Their short fiction and essays have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Guernica, The Rumpus, The New York Times, BuzzFeed, and other publications. Hedgebrook, VONA, Bread Loaf, and The Community of Writers have supported their writing.

A finalist for the Northern California Book Award, Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, and the Black Lawrence Press Immigrant Writing Series, Grace Loh Prasad’s memoir The Translator’s Daughter was published by Mad Creek Books/The Ohio State University Press in 2024.

She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College and is an alumna of Tin House and VONA. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Longreads, The Offing, Artsy, Hyperallergic, Catapult, Jellyfish Review, KHÔRA, and elsewhere. Grace is a member of The Writers Grotto and 17 Syllables, an AAPI writers collective. Born in Taiwan and raised in New Jersey and Hong Kong, she currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Marcia Aldrich is the author of the free memoir Girl Rearing , published by W.W. Norton, and of Companion to an Untold Story , which won the AWP Award in Creative Nonfiction. She is the editor of Waveform: Twenty-First-Century Essays by Women, published by the University of Georgia Press. Her chapbook EDGE was published by New Michigan Press. Studio of the Voice won The Wandering Aengus Book Award in 2024.

The Santa Barbara Literary Festival brings together readers and writers of every genre for a two day celebration of storytelling and inspiration. Engaging panels, enlightening workshops, pop-up events, and welcoming social gatherings, bring together established authors, emerging writers, and passionate readers in a uniquely intimate setting that fosters community centered around a shared love of the literary arts.

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