Thinking about writing a memoir? Here’s why you should.

Leslie Gray Streeter wrote “Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like ‘Journey’ in the Title” because it’s the book she needed when she became a widow.

“It was personal and raw and about the mess in the middle between loss and healing,” said Streeter, a columnist at The Baltimore Banner. “And I knew I’d have to get very real and candid. I was up for it.”

Mallary Tenore Tarpley wrote “Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery” because even as a teenager, she knew she wanted to tell her story.

“But I always thought I needed to be fully recovered from my disorder in order to write a successful memoir,” said Tenore Tarpley, an assistant professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Poynter colleague. “I kept waiting for the day when I would reach full recovery, but that day never came. While getting my master’s in fine arts, it occurred to me that maybe I could write a different story from all the ones I’d read in other eating disorder memoirs, which are typically written from the perspective of people who are fully recovered.”