Potter College News

This past Wednesday, Erin Keane came to WKU to speak with students on her experience in the journalism field and her process for writing her recent memoir Runaway.

Keane’s memoir focuses on her mother’s life, especially her younger years as a runaway. Keane read a couple chapters from the book, which reflected the complicated research that goes into memoir. Keane said she would spend “hours and hours digging online” for one small detail in to go in one sentence for a chapter but in the end, “all of it frames the writing”. Keane urges writers to not be discouraged if the research does not end with a direct citation because all background enriches the writing in some way.

Before writing her memoir, Keane worked as a journalist which played a large part in how she approached writing this book, specifically in the interview portion and the research she did. Most of the interviews took place over the phone over the course of 4 years. Keane wrote the book while also working at Salon where she was recently promoted from Editor in Chief to Content Editor. Her background as a cultural critic is how she began the memoir, by reporting on her parents’ life for Salon and using media to make sense of her families’ life. The book came to fruition once Keane changed her mind set and stopped “putting herself in the background where a journalist would be” because she was afraid to put herself in the story.

“I think it’s really lovely for us to kind of be in community and hear from working professionals in the creative writing industry,” said Christian Butterfield, a sophomore in the English program at WKU. “I think that often times there’s kind of this mysticism about going from ‘I’m writing in an undergrad class to I’m somebody with a book out,’ so having these experiences and seeing that here’s a real person--a semi local person from the Kentucky area--who is successful, kind of demystifies the process and makes it seem more possible.”

When it came time to find a publisher, she was drawn to Belt Publishing after she edited a collection for them back in 2020. The authenticity of their company was what convinced her to move forward with them; they put out stories about the working-class while being a co-op themselves.

“When I thought about what I really wanted, it was not six figures and the top name at a major house, but what I really wanted was a good editor,” said Keane. “The relationship between an editor and writer is precious.”

Memoir writing is extremely personal and when asked how Keane dealt with the reaction from her family, she was proud to say that they were all extremely supportive, and she was especially relieved when her mother said she liked it.

“I didn’t want her permission, but I wanted her to feel not at odds with how she was represented,” said Keane.

The memoir explores complicated and dangerous situations that her mother experienced and a major point that Keane wanted to make was to ensure that her mother’s sense of independence was still alive in the writing and not disregarded as a damsel in distress.

“Girls aren’t just what is done to them,” said Keane. “They have agency.”