My Autobiography Of Carson McCullers: A Memoir

"While interning at a writers’ archive as a graduate student, Jenn Shapland stumbled upon love letters between American novelist Carson McCullers and a woman named Annemarie. The discovery, Shapland says, was a turning point for her; less than a year later, Shapland was comfortable identifying as a lesbian for the first time. The letters also inspired Shapland to engage in a years-long process of research into aspects of McCullers’ life that traditional biographies overlooked; namely, her gender transgressions and her relationships with other women. My Autobiography Of Carson McCullers asks sharp questions not just about the details of McCullers’ life but, more broadly, how we understand historical figures who confound the social expectations of their time (and our own) and how, in turn, they can help us understand ourselves."