Close, A Family Memoir

Author

Elizabeth Tannen

Publication Date

7-6-2012

Abstract

This manuscript braids together two narratives. One is about my immediate family: my father had three boys—my older brothers—with his first wife, who died, after two years of illness, when my brothers were young. I am his only child with my mother, who was twenty-six when she married my dad and took on the role of parenting the boys. The second narrative traces my fixation, as a young, single woman, on romantic love: I write a blog about relationships, and have long been consumed by a search for connection shaped by the isolation I've felt within my family. The arc of the second narrative ties into the first as the narrator, after years of feeling afraid to write about the family and focusing on relationships instead, finally begins to tell the family's story—to her surprise, engaging them in that process.

Degree Name

MFA Creative Writing

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Huyler, Frank

Second Committee Member

Shigekuni, Julie

Third Committee Member

Rapp, Emily

Language

English

Keywords

Families -- Biography

Document Type

Dissertation

Recommended Citation

Tannen, Elizabeth. "Close, A Family Memoir." (2012). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/engl_etds/40