Writing my Memoir in the Merrill Apartment: An Evening with John Cotter

Writing my Memoir in the Merrill Apartment: An Evening with John Cotter

Author talk, conversation, and drinks

*Please note that guests must be able to physically climb up two steep flights of stairs to gain access to the Merrill apartment*

*RSVP required (once full, interested guests will be placed on a wait list)*

From the author

My Merrill House stay was critical to completing my memoir, Losing Music, giving me the space and spiritual courage to piece together the story I had been writing in scraps for nearly a decade. In the dark of Merrill's study, as snow blurred the window and the lot across the street filled with water, I unstitched scenes that had got scrambled, reconnected chronology, and tried to relate a complex series of events as smoothly as I could manage.

The attic room creaked as the wind slammed the glass. Old-fashioned language and elegant variation from the books on the shelf by the desk made perfect fits. I cruised the library, pulling down books by people I'd known, many of them gone, and they kept me company. The room transformed around me.

I don't believe in ghosts. But they can help you write a book.

-John Cotter