Inside the Pages Author Series: Alexandra Marshall

Alexandra Marshall presents her memoir The Silence of Your Name: The Afterlife of a Suicide in conversation with poet and memoirist John Skoyles. In an exchange illustrated with readings from Marshall’s new book, the two writers explore and discuss the delicate tensions that define the process of turning personal history into art.

About the book:

The Silence of Your Name: The Afterlife of a Suicide tells of the suicide in 1970 of Marshall’s charismatic and idealistic young husband while they were in Ghana with Operation Crossroads Africa, a program JFK called “the progenitor of the Peace Corps.” A chronicle of tragic loss and the toxic effects of denial, it becomes the inspiring story of what Marshall calls “the Ultimate Alchemy: the transformation of violence into nonviolence, and grief into love.”

“An eloquent countermove against the erasure that follows a suicide, Alexandra Marshall’s tender, layered memoir is an exploration of how her first husband’s death shaped her without being allowed to entirely define her. The burnished clarity of her narrative is an honor to him, to herself, and to her readers.” – Joan Wickersham, National Book Award Finalist for The Suicide Index

“Already a successful novelist, Alexandra Marshall has written a thrilling memoir that redefines the genre. It pairs diversity with aristocracy in an unprecedented way. Everyone who wants to write should read this book!” – Susan Cheever, Drinking in America: Our Secret History

“A rare form of memoir. Deeply introspective, insightful, surprising, gripping – and gorgeously written.” – Taiye Selasi, Ghana Must Go

About John Skoyles:

John Skoyles is the author of seven books of poems, most recently, Yes and No; and three memoirs: Secret Frequencies, A Moveable Famine And Driven. He is the poetry editor of Ploughshares.