Bücher von Musa Mayer

Before completing her MFA in the Writing Division at Columbia University, Musa Mayer worked for many years as a Master's level counselor in the Ohio Community Mental Health system, with a particular focus on groups and women's issues. Her two prior published books were both memoirs. The first, Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston (Knopf, 1988, Penguin, 1990, DaCapo, 1997), was about growing up as the daughter of a well-known painter in the New York art world of the 1950s. The second, Examining Myself: One Woman's Story of Breast Cancer Treatment and Recovery (Faber & Faber, 1993), was Musa's own journey with breast cancer that led her to participate in the Breast Cancer Listserv on the Internet, where she developed the idea for a book about metastatic breast cancer and met most of the people she interviewed. Her experiences as teacher, counselor, and writer of memoir have given her an abiding faith in the transformative and healing power of telling life stories. Musa also regularly teaches memoir writing, and leads writing workshops and retreats for people with life-threatening illnesses. Favorite activities include gardening, golf, theater, and travel. She remains very involved with her father's work, traveling widely for exhibitions of his paintings and drawings. She lives in New York City with her husband, Tom, a neuropsychologist who works with head-injured people. Her two sons, David and Jonathan, live nearby.