Want to tell your own story? Try memoir-plus.

Mallary Tenore Tarpley has spent most of her life writing her memoir — first in bright, fuzzy journals with joyful images of Winnie the Pooh, Minnie Mouse and stuffed bears, later in draft after draft on her laptop as she began her career.

The story of her first book, “Slip: Life in the Middle of Eating Disorder Recovery,” is Tenore Tarpley’s journey of understanding the very real and imperfect middle place between acute illness and recovery. And because of her approach, it’s a lot of other people’s stories, too.

Tenore Tarpley taught with a group of memoir writers for Poynter’s first memoir workshop, Mining for Memoir. We chatted via email about how she used her journalism skills to approach a newer genre of memoir writing. Tenore Tarpley, an assistant professor of practice at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media and McCombs School of Business, previously worked as Poynter’s managing editor.