Wednesday, October 21, 5:30-7:30 p.m. ET
Penguin Random House, 1745 Broadway (between 55th & 56th Streets), Toni Morrison Room, 3rd floor, NYC
$20 for WMG members and partner organizations; $25 for non-members; $10 for active Scholars
What happens when memoir becomes a lens rather than a destination?
Today's most compelling memoirs don't stop at the author's story. They use personal experience as a doorway into larger questions about family, culture, history, psychology, science, identity, and the world around us.
In Memoir Plus, writers whose books expand beyond traditional memoir into reporting, research, exploration, cultural criticism, and other forms of narrative nonfiction will discuss how personal stories can illuminate universal themes. How do writers move beyond "what happened to me" to create work that resonates more broadly? Where is the line between memoir and narrative nonfiction, and does that distinction still matter?
Join moderator Estelle Erasmus and panelists Laura Carney, Hyeseung Song, and Bethany Saltman for a lively conversation about the possibilities of memoir and the power of personal stories that contain multitudes.
Meet the speakers:
Regina Brooks is the founder and president of Serendipity Literary Agency, the largest African American-owned agency in the country. She has represented and established a diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. In 2015, Publishers Weekly nominated Regina as a PW Star Watch Finalist. She's been honored with a Stevie Award in Business, and Writer’s Digest named Serendipity Literary Agency as a top 25 literary agency. She is currently the vice president of the Association of American Literary Agents (AALA) and co-chair of its Communications Committee, a founding member and board member of Literary Agents of Change (LAOC), and a board member of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP). She previously held senior editorial positions at John Wiley and Sons (where she was not only the youngest, but also the first African American, editor in their college division) and McGraw-Hill.
Laura Carney is a writer and copy editor in New York. Her work as a copy editor has been in books and magazines for 20 years, such as Good Housekeeping, People, Vanity Fair, GQ, Vogue, and Macmillan. Her bestselling book, My Father ’s List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free, about her six-year quest to finish her late father's bucket list, was published by Post Hill Press in June 2023. My Father's List was chosen as one of the Best Books of 2023 by Real Simple; as the 2025 One City, One Book read in Greensboro, NC; and as the June 2024 pick for the Modern Prairie book club, where Laura teaches a year-round Bucket List Challenge with Do the Thing creator Stacey Lauren. Laura has appeared on many TV and radio programs, such as CBS News Sunday Morning, NPR, and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. She teaches memoir writing, hikes and trains for running races in her spare time. Laura can be found on Instagram @myfatherslist and at bylauracarney.com.
Bethany Saltman is a publishing expert with decades of experience crafting and selling nonfiction book proposals, including her own. Her critically acclaimed first book, Strange Situation: A Mother’s Journey Into the Science of Attachment (2020, Ballantine/Random House), was named one of the Top Science Books of 2020 by New Scientist, has been published in six countries, and is included in psychology syllabi around the world. She is also a senior literary agent and Director of Business Strategy at Wave Literary. Bethany splits her time between the Catskills of New York and the Upper West Side of Manhattan with her husband, her daughter (when she visits from college), and their two standard poodles.
Hyeseung Song is a first-generation Korean American painter, writer, and teacher. She is the author of Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl, about an Asian American woman’s struggle with self-worth and mental illness. Docile was called “a savagely beautiful memoir” by David Henry Hwang and a “revelation” by Chloé Cooper Jones. The audiobook was named a “Best” at Apple, and a Korean language edition was released in 2025. Raised in Texas, Hyeseung studied philosophy, languages, and creative writing at Princeton University. She pursued dual post-graduate degrees at Harvard in law and philosophy before dropping out to study painting in New York. Her paintings are held in private collections internationally. Hyeseung was at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference this summer as a Nonfiction Fellow. She is currently at work on a meta-memoir about the ethics of writing about other people, revision, and the failure of translation-—linguistic, psychological, and literary.
Meet the moderator:
Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and the author of Writing That Gets Noticed, named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers. She is the host of the award-winning podcast Freelance Writing Direct, an adjunct instructor in NYU's School of Professional Studies, and teaches and leads webinars for Writer's Digest. A former editor-in-chief of five national magazines, Estelle has written for more than 150 publications, including WIRED, Slate, Electric Literature, Marie Claire, Salon, Shondaland, and The Independent. Her pieces for The New York Times and The Washington Post have gone viral globally, and she has appeared on Good Morning America and Fox News. She is currently writing a narrative nonfiction book that blends memoir, media criticism, and cultural history, drawing on her years as a women's magazine editor and dating expert. Learn more at estelleserasmus.com, subscribe to her Substack at estelleserasmus.substack.com, and follow her on Instagram @estelleserasmus.
Refunds available up to 48 hours before the event. No refunds for cancellations made within 48 hours of the event.
