The Past versus the Future of Memoir Writing
Kristen Kuhns of Website Story of My Life Chats to Suite 101
Aug 19, 2008 Dulcinea Norton-Smith
Kristen Kuhns is the COO and co-founder of the Story of My Life website, a site dedicated to preserving the most precious of all assets - life stories of everyone.
Kristen took time out to talk to Suite 101 about how her website looks to the future of memoirs.
Suite 101: How do you view your website in 10 and 50 years time?
I always liked to go hunting in my Grandma’s attic (she was a bit of a…. packrat?) and see all the old stuff up there. We’d play among the dusty things and wonder what life was like for them growing up. We never found a journal or diary, but it would have been wonderful to get to know our relatives through their writings.
In 50, 100, 1000 years we view this site as the “storyopedia” of the chronicles of people’s lives. Families connected back through the generations through their stories – histories and legacies of people. And not just families. I would have loved to have known who my great-great-grand-relative’s friends were, what was popular and important at the time, what groups mattered to them.
Suite 101: How do you feel that memoir and autobiography writing differs today from 100 years ago?
Well I’m not 100 (although I hope to live that long) but we’ve interviewed several centenarians already for our featured stories section. The majority of them came from a life seemingly simpler than today’s hectic existences but lives that contained a much stronger emphasis on survival. Between chores and family and whatnot, few had time to themselves. For some, even paper was a luxury, so there weren’t as many opportunities to record. Today we have digital devices galore, the internet, and the good old standby: pen and paper. There is no excuse really not to record some stories at least, for your children. I’d be even so bold as to say it might be the most important thing you leave them.
Suite 101: What is The Story of my Life Foundation?
The Story of My Life Foundation is a separate 501(c)(3) non-profit entity who has 2 sole purposes. First, to ensure that the stories placed in the Foundation are kept in perpetuity and accessible (including when technology changes!), and eventually to issue its own grants for people to go and collect stories from indigenous populations who may otherwise not have their histories recorded.
We realize that making a statement of “forever” is a bold thing to say. The Foundation has a complex algorithm created for how long it takes to store 1MB of data for 100 years. This number is periodically re-calculated, but the point being that it has enough money in the bank to cover the costs of storing the data in the site for today +100 years (always moving forward). Again it’s kind of a like an insurance against losing your memoirs.
We met up with one woman from Louisiana who was an avid scrapbooker. She told us of how a few years back her family, who had by now scattered across the globe, was having its first family reunion. She offered to put together memory books and have copies printed for all the families and asked that people send in memorabilia – which they did. Tickets, old immigration papers, photos, etc. A lot of them were originals. She was in the process of putting together the books when Hurricane Katrina erupted and she barely escaped with her life. She lost everything.
Another gentleman we knew, a documentarian, had collections (movies) of people he’d video-taped over the many years. His prized possession was a video of his parents who had both passed on. He had a fire in his house and lost almost everything, including all his movies.
The Foundation helps to mitigate against the chances of loss.
For an interview with Kristen about the services her company offer and to read Kristen's biography check out our further interviews with her. Suite 101 also chatted to Kristen about her personal views on memoirs.
Kristen Kuhns
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