Dear Friends and Readers, As I prepare to give a talk about the genre of memoir in a few weeks, I'm again reflecting on this compelling and challenging kind of writing that so many of us are tempted to undertake, especially as we get older. After working for twelve years as a journalist and another twelve as a biographer, I began tentatively to write from my own experience as I was nearing the age of fifty, an age when women often become more outspoken about what they know.