Debra Monroe

Author

Debra Monroe is an acclaimed author known for her exploration of identity and resilience in works like 'The Source of Trouble.'

Born
January 1, 1950
Quotes
10
Rank
#1239

About Debra Monroe

Debra Monroe — Life and Legacy

Debra Monroe is a prominent American author whose writing delves into the complexities of identity and the human experience. Her notable work, 'The Source of Trouble,' examines the intricacies of personal struggle and the resilience required to navigate life's challenges. Monroe's key ideas often revolve around the notion that identity is fluid, as reflected in her quote, 'identity is a moving target,' which encapsulates her belief that our sense of self is shaped by our experiences and environments. In her writing, Monroe challenges conventional narratives by emphasizing the importance of place and personal history in shaping who we are. Her characters often grapple with their identities in the face of adversity, illustrating how resilience emerges from struggle. This perspective is evident in her exploration of how storytelling serves as a means to understand oneself and connect with others, reinforcing the idea that our stories are integral to our identities. Monroe's insights remain relevant today, as they resonate with readers navigating their own complexities of identity and resilience. Her work invites reflection on the ongoing journey of self-discovery and the strength found in confronting personal challenges.

Quote collection

Debra Monroe quotes

10 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Debra Monroe Author
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"I know a few women younger than me who have careers and children, and so the burgeoning career and family happen at the same time. A few have said something like, "During dating, he was all about feminism. But now I have to ask him to help with the children, I have to ask him to do the dishes, and every time he does, it's like a favor. Where's the feminist I married?" That's theoretical feminism, not practical feminism. I don't think we're all where we need to be. I don't know if we will be in my lifetime. Life is imperfect. But interesting."

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Debra Monroe Author
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"Yet one new trend I do like coming from mainstream publishers right now is memoirs tied to research that explores the narrator's dilemma."

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Debra Monroe Author
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"Memoirs are going to be problematic sells for a while, though, because even if memoir means "based in memory," right now, in the collective mind, memoir means "recovery." When my agent and I started looking at small presses the possibility for my book, I realized most small presses were not publishing memoir, because they don't want to be associated with the genre that Mary Karr calls, half-facetiously, "literature's trashy cousin.""

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"I started writing nonfiction because nonfiction is well-suited to subjects that, if you wrote them as fiction, people would say, "I don't believe this. This is a little outlandish"."

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Debra Monroe Author
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"Grading creative writing is always an ethical dilemma. But what you brought up about grading personal stories versus the research paper is of course a truly volatile issue in teaching memoir or the personal essay, because there's no pretense that the narrator is a character."

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"The advice I give is , "Don't think of your career as a plan or blueprint. Think of it as growing toward the most light. Keep your eyes open about where the best experiences are happening." Everyone wants to see how someone else managed, defying odds."

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"I guess the biggest difference between me and many of today's female graduate students is that a lot of them were raised by mothers with careers, and they got college degrees studying with female professors. Both of those factors make the enterprise of educating yourself for a serious profession seem feasible."

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"There's still sexism in the world, so there's still sexism in publishing and in graduate school. But it is different. Now, it's more coded and harder to detect. It was more explicit when I was in school. There were no rules against male professors asking out female students. The reverse didn't happen since female professors were rare or nonexistent. Visiting writers came, 90% of them male, and some expected that a female student would materialize as his date for the visit."

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"Historians will look back on this era and how the Internet changed what we value, what we consider art, the way we think, the way we define what it means to be human. In Sincerity and Authenticity, Lionel Trilling describes the changes that occurred between about 1850 and 1920, due to the Industrial Revolution and the resulting migration of people from small communities to relative anonymity in cities. Because of that paradigm shift, ideas about what it means to be an individual underwent a transformation that leeched into all areas. Art, psychology, history, marriage, gender."

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"I don't know a lot of writers, even writers who have been on the bestseller list for a few weeks, or writers who have gotten movie options, who can live on just their writing income. Once you break it down to the years it took to write the book, place it, promote it, and you pay the agent, pay the taxes, the annual income is not enough to live on comfortably. I do not have a starving artist inclination. I'm from the working class. I don't feel creative unless I feel like my house is going to be there and I'm going to be fed. I can't worry about money and write. Maybe some people can."

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