Manchester Uni Press snaps up Dunn's book on the craft of memoir writing

Manchester University Press has snapped up Into Being: The Radical Craft of Memoir and its Power to Transform by academic Lily Dunn. 

Editorial director Emma Brennan acquired world rights from Jess Molloy at Curtis Brown. The book is scheduled for hardback publication in October 2025. 

Into Being is a part memoir, part teaching manual which "demystifies the memoirist’s art by helping readers find meaning in their raw experience and elevate the personal to the universal". It is pitched as a "ground-breaking" book in presenting the act of memoir writing as healing. The publisher continued: "Into Being will help writers find their story: asking new questions of experience, and bearing witness to all aspects of the self, in order to create a ‘living presence’ on the page, changing and shifting as the narrative progresses. Writing memoir then becomes a journey, and the journey becomes the story presented to the world." 

Dunn holds a doctorate in creative writing which she teaches at Bath Spa University. Her memoir Sins of my Father: A Daughter, A Cult, A Wild Unravelling (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) was published March 2022. Dunn commented: "There are very few books on writing memoir in the UK market, and I was thrilled when Emma Brennan was so enthusiastic about my idea. I am passionate about memoir and creative non-fiction, and its possibilities as a form. With its combination of reflection, theory and teaching tips, Into Being has found the right home with MUP." 

Brennan said: "We at MUP are big fans of Lily’s work and could not be more delighted to be working with her on her craft book. Lily brings a wealth of experience, a teacher’s eye for accessibility and a finely tuned writing style of her own, to make this a book that will be treasured and consulted time and time again by writers of all backgrounds."