Beth Kephart

http://beth-kephart.blogspot.com/

Beth Kephart is the award-winning author of 21 books—including six memoirs—and the 2015/2016 recipient of the Beltran Family Award for Innovative Teaching and Mentoring at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kelly Writers House. Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir won the 2013 Books for a Better Life Award (Motivational Category and was named a best writing book by O magazine, Poets & Writers, and many others.

Ms. Kephart’s other books include Love: A Philadelphia Affair and acclaimed novels for teens. She is a National Book Award finalist and an NEA and Pew grant winner. She is a partner in Juncture Writing Workshops, has lectured about memoir in venues across the country, and writes frequently on the topic for the Chicago Tribune.

She blogs daily at http://beth-kephart.blogspot.com/. 

Books by Beth Kephart

Image of This Is the Story of You
Image of Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir
Image of Love: A Philadelphia Affair
Image of Into the Tangle of Friendship : A Memoir of the Things That Matter
Image of Going Over
Image of A Slant of Sun: One Child's Courage
Image of Small Damages
Image of Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River
Image of One Thing Stolen
Image of Undercover
Image of Nest. Flight. Sky.: On Love and Loss, One Wing at a Time
Image of You Are My Only
Image of Ghosts in the Garden: Reflections on Endings, Beginnings, and the Unearthing of Self
Image of Nothing but Ghosts
Image of Still Love in Strange Places: A Memoir
Image of House of Dance (Laura Geringer Books (Paperback))
Image of Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent
Image of Zenobia: The Curious Book of Business
Image of The Heart Is Not a Size
Image of Seeing Past Z: Nurturing the Imagination in a Fast-Forward World
Image of Dangerous Neighbors
Image of Still Love in Strange Places

Book Reviews by Beth Kephart

Image of Pretending Is Lying
Author(s):
Dominique Goblet
Genre(s):
Personal Memoir, Graphic, Nonfiction, Comics, & Cartoons, Memoir

Pretending Is Lying

February 22, 2017
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

At the University of Pennsylvania, where I teach memoir, I’ve started a tradition.

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Image of My Father Before Me: A Memoir
Author(s):
Chris Forhan
Genre(s):
Family Memoir, Nonfiction

My Father Before Me: A Memoir

June 27, 2016
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

In The Duke of Deception, memoirist Geoffrey Wolff wrote of a man—his own father—who lied voraciously, died in shame, and nonetheless was loved. He left questions in his wake.

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Image of In Gratitude
Author(s):
Jenny Diski
Genre(s):
Biography, Autobiography & Memoir, Personal Memoir, Authors

In Gratitude

May 16, 2016
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

I need a replacement word for fierce. I need something slightly less bloodying than savage and something more devastating than captious.

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Image of Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author
Author(s):
Herman Wouk
Genre(s):
Biography, Autobiography & Memoir, Authors

Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author

January 31, 2016
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

He wrote The Caine Mutiny, Marjorie Morningstar, Youngblood Hawke, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. He won the Pulitzer, TV miniseries fame, and the girl of his dreams.

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Image of This Angel on My Chest (Pitt Drue Heinz Lit Prize)
Author(s):
Leslie Pietrzyk
Genre(s):
Short Stories, Single Authors

This Angel on My Chest (Pitt Drue Heinz Lit Prize)

October 11, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

“Angel is remorse, and it is redemption. It is (highest compliment) craft.”

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Image of Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
Author(s):
M.T. Anderson
Genre(s):
Young Adult, Young Adult

Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

October 10, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

In my college years I fell hard for the shadows and complexities of 20th century Russia.

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Image of Everything, Everything
Author(s):
Nicola Yoon
Genre(s):
Young Adult, Literary, Coming of Age

Everything, Everything

October 7, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

It’s been more than three years since the release of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, and into that vacuum has swept a class of tender-funny romance novels featuring one or more young

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Image of M Train
Author(s):
Patti Smith
Genre(s):
Musicians

M Train

October 5, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

After I finished reading M Train, Patti Smith’s mesmeric new memoir, I sat on a round chair in a humid house and didn’t move. The hour, it seemed, had been churched.

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Image of The Prize: A Novel
Author(s):
Jill Bialosky
Genre(s):
Literary Fiction

The Prize: A Novel

September 18, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

Life runs ahead of us, it runs away from us, it never stops until, one day, it does. How do we live the happiness we tentatively achieve? Is happiness sustainable?

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Image of Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders: A Novel
Author(s):
Julianna Baggott
Genre(s):
Literary Fiction

Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders

August 17, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

Julianna Baggott can do anything with words. Anything, I tell you.

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Image of Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother's Story
Author(s):
David Payne
Genre(s):
Biography, Autobiography & Memoir

Barefoot to Avalon: A Brother's Story

August 10, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

“It is a memoir full of ache. An ache siblings understand.”

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Image of The Small Backs of Children: A Novel
Author(s):
Lidia Yuknavitch
Genre(s):
Contemporary

The Small Backs of Children

July 6, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

“This is a novel for the bold of heart.”

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Image of The Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime
Author(s):
Harold Bloom
Genre(s):
Historical, Biography, Autobiography & Memoir

The Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime

May 11, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

Mesmerizing and at times mesmerizingly confusing, Harold Bloom’s new opus, The Daemon Knows: Literary Greatness and the American Sublime, is (but only fractionally) this: A mix of the tend

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Image of I Refuse
Author(s):
Per Petterson
Translator(s):
Don Bartlett
Genre(s):
Literary Fiction

I Refuse

April 6, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

“Petterson’s language is immaculate.”

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Image of H Is for Hawk
Author(s):
Helen Macdonald
Genre(s):
Personal Memoir

H is for Hawk

March 24, 2015
Reviewed by: 
Beth Kephart

“A writer of extreme beauty, a shaper of divine sentences, Macdonald is also a memoirist who understands the power of telling a story . . .”

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