STARDOM, SEXUALITY & DISSOCIATION: THREE MEMOIRS

Chloe Caldwell’s Trying: A Memoir is one woman’s story told through selective journaling: her struggle with infertility, the dissolution of her marriage – and an eventual reawakening to her long-buried desires and queer identity. Throughout, Caldwell kept writing, making sense of her new reality in real time. She captures the continuous process of becoming and the mysterious ways that writing informs that process. As a child, Atash Yaghmaian endured terrors at home and outside, as Iran was on fire. Escaping abuse, gender oppression, war, and religious superstition, she disassociated into what she calls the “House of Stone,” where nine beings, each a part of her, lived. My Name Means Fire: A Memoir enlightens readers about dissociative identity disorder (DID) and what it sometimes takes anyone to survive. In Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star, Argentine writer, comedian, and once-successful preteen actor Tamara Yajia brings an unlikely combination of comedy, tragedy, generational struggle, and filthy sex jokes to a raucously candid memoir. It’s a messy, blazing story of a young woman trying to survive while holding on to her confidence, ambition, and sense of humor.

JEWISH LIFE & CULTURE PROGRAMS ARE PRESENTED BY

The Stacey and Eric Mindich Fund for Jewish Stories

Buy Trying: A Memoir – Caldwell

Buy My Name Means Fire: A Memoir – Yaghmaian

Buy Cry for Me, Argentina: My Life as a Failed Child Star – Yajia