Mary Sue Koeppel’s Talk: Compiling a Group Memoir

Talk summarized by Roz Miller

Mary Sue Koeppel, one of the four editors of No One’s Easy Daughter, Our Journeys of Transformation. discussed how she and the other editors collected the stories of 39 nuns and former nuns of the School Sisters of St. Francis in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the mission of sharing the stories in a group memoir.

After attending a fifty-year reunion at the convent, the editors approached this daunting task by first outlining a plan to locate former classmates and journals. They also discussed how they might work with reluctant participants by instilling trust, while recognizing and accepting that a few might still decline to participate.

Participants were encouraged to provide written vignettes—memories and musings of their lives—to document a way of life that has been all but erased from the planet. They asked each participant to explain why she became a nun, why she left or stayed at the convent, and to tell stories of how she transitioned from a girl in a 1950s convent to a woman of 2017 and her possible involvement in major social, political, spiritual, and educational movements of the past 60 years.

The editors asked these 21^st century women to explain what they believe now—their spirituality. But the editors also wanted to know each nun’s journey of transformation. What was it like to be a nun in the days of long habits and heavy rules? How did their lives as women in the convent affect who they are now and why? They wanted them to explain the life journey of transformation open to each of us, not just women, but to everyone?

The book is a mosaic of personal stories, divided into three parts: (1) Early Life, (2) Mid Life, and (3) Later Life. In advance of publication, the editors collected a forward and advance praise from experts. They also added a glossary.

Koeppel said the process the editors used for gathering information for this book can be adapted and adjusted for any group memoir. Decide what your readers would want to know and how you will arrange information to satisfy them.

Koeppel taught English and Creative Writing for many years at Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ), now Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ). Her poetry, short stories, book reviews, and articles have appeared in over fifty journals, magazines, and newspapers.

She also served as the editor of Kalliope, a Journal of Women’s Literature & Art for seventeen years. She has published writing guides, including Writing Strategies-Plus Collaboration, a text for college students, and Write Your Life, The Memory Catcher. Her poetry books include In the Library of Silences: Poems of Loss, and Between the Bones. Koeppel also interviewed writers for the television programs “Writer-to-Writer” and “Worth Quoting.”