My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir – Jenn Shapland Free Audiobook

Written by Jenn Shapland
Read by Jenn Shapland
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 5hrs 45min
Publisher: 2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc.,

How do you tell the real story of someone misremembered—an icon and idol—alongside your own? Jenn Shapland’s celebrated debut is both question and answer: an immersive, surprising exploration of one of America’s most beloved writers, alongside a genre-defying examination of identity, queerness, memory, obsession, and love.

Shapland is a graduate student when she first uncovers letters written to Carson McCullers by a woman named Annemarie. Though Shapland recognizes herself in the letters, which are intimate and unabashed in their feelings, she does not see McCullers as history has portrayed her. Her curiosity gives way to fixation, not just with this newly discovered side of McCullers’s life, but also with how we tell queer love stories. Why, Shapland asks, are the stories of women paved over by others’ narratives? What happens when constant revision is required of queer women trying to navigate and self-actualize in straight spaces? And what might the tracing of McCullers’s life—her history, her secrets, and her legacy—reveal to Shapland about herself?

In smart, illuminating prose, Shapland interweaves her own story with McCullers’s to create a vital new portrait of one of our nation’s greatest literary treasures, and shows us how the writers we love and the stories we tell about ourselves make us who we are.

“Jenn Shapland’s narration of her audiobook embodies a deeply personal journey…. Her performance feels like an intimate podcast. Shapland’s voice reflects her self-discovery, making this listening experience seem far too short.” —AudioFile Magazine

This is a real-time recording so length is slightly different from published time.