A Powerful Intersection: Pairing Memoir And Science Writing
New memoirs by Roxane Gay, Nina Riggs, and Hida Viloria bring layers of meaning to scientific facts about our bodies, our health and our genders, says anthropologist Barbara J. King.
I write science, but I read memoir.
The pairing of memoir and science writing can be an excellent conduit for learning: What may strike a reader as somewhat abstract in science writing may become more real when encountered in a searing narrative of a person's own highly specific experience.
Here's a look at a trio of recent memoirs that involve three topics I've written about at 13.7 -- fatness, cancer and gender (though really, gender is threaded through all three):
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
In , published this month, Roxane Gay writes about her decision, in the years following a highly traumatic gang rape she suffered at the age of
