What is a Biomythography—and What Does it Have to Do With Your Memoir?

Coined by the legendary Audre Lorde, biomythography borrows techniques from fantasy and magical realism to show just how vital world-building can be in your own true story.

This month at Narratively Academy, award-winning author Jasper “Jaz” Joyner is teaching a 6-week workshop on How to Write a Memoir with Magical Realism. If you want to know more about what that means—and how Jaz did it in his own memoir, “Pansy,”—Jaz will break it down in our next Open Book live conversation on Tuesday, February 17 at 1pm.

For today, enjoy this StoryCraft piece from Jaz about one of the most exciting elements of this burgeoning blended genre.

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If every memoir is a peek into someone’s worldview, then might your story require a little world-building?

Audre Lorde thought so.

The late poet’s memoir Zami: A New Spelling of My Name shows us how fantastical elements can truly drive home a nonfiction story’s themes. Lorde coined the term “biomythography”—a story that combines history, biography, and myth— to describe her approach to memoir writing with Zami. You might tilt your head at the thought of “myth” in memoir. I did. But then I delved into Lorde’s book.

Zami is a poetic coming-of-age story that follows the life of Audre Lorde (1934-1992) as she finds her voice through her relationships with several fascinating women. The “myth” in Zami comes in Lorde’s retelling of a mythical version of her mother’s homeland, Carriacou, Grenada.

Real-life Carriacou is a tiny island in the southeastern Caribbean. But for Lorde, who grew up loving tales of Carriacou her mother told her as a child, the island became far more magical in her mind the more she learned about herself and her queerness. She began to think of Carriacou as a land full of powerful, lesbian goddesses. She imagined that all of the strong women she encountered, who helped her discover her voice, could be from this place, and this idea was like an anchor for the author’s journey.

Lorde’s evolving idea of Carriacou, or the myth of the place, became a sort of poetic metaphor for Zami’s biggest theme; finding home and belonging. Because she first defines the “real” version of Carriacou, and expresses her fascination with all that she wished she could learn about it, we, the readers, understand that the mythical version is simply a north star for the author, guiding Lorde’s life experiences and evolution throughout the book.

One of the ways my own book, Pansy, “world builds” and incorporates Lorde’s concept of myth in memoir is by playing with the idea of dreams and dreaming. Early dreams from my childhood of an older version of myself help guide this non-linear memoir forward, as I attempt to become this person that only exists in an “unreal” place. Using the fantastical element of dreams to emphasize themes of Black exceptionalism and transness add an extra level of depth and understanding by giving readers a peek into my childhood psyche.

Incorporating elements from biomythography, or myth in memoir, is just one of the ways memoir can benefit from magical realism. Like Audra Lorde, I’ve come to understand that with memoir, it’s much less about the lived experiences than it is about how you choose to recount them. Your personal recounting of your story, or the world-building you do to express your life experiences, is the magic that ties it all together.

In How to Write a Memoir with Magical Realism I’ll be teaching how to incorporate magical realism into your own memoir writing by highlighting some of its most versatile approaches: personification of a theme or idea, poetic influence in tone, metaphor, and, of course, biomythography.

So, what are some of the myths that represent themes in your life? Let’s find out.

I hope you’ll join me for the ride!

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