In a Diana’s Notebook blog post about her friend Tristine Rainer, writer and transpersonal psychologist Diana Raab, author of Dear Anaïs writes:
“My dear friend, Tristine Rainer, a powerful an accomplished woman in her own right (see her website) was Anaïs’ friend and protegee and their relationship left an indelible mark on Tristine. Often at lunch, Tristine will quote what Nin would have said or done in a given situation. Recently, I had asked Tristine to share the most important thing she learned from Nin, and she said “I learned that a crazy young woman in her twenties can become a joyful, wise woman in her sixties. It was her [Nin’s] belief that we can transform ourselves and our lives through self-creation. And that diary writing was a way.”
Rainer is the founder and the Director of the Center for Autobiographic Studies. A pioneer in journal writing and narrative autobiography Rainer co-taught a course with Anaïs and is the author of Your Life As Story and The New Diary. Both books are bibles for the memoir/journaling movement initiated from the famous and sometimes infamous Diaries. (visit the New Yorker’s cartoon bank to see the witty Jack Ziegler cartoon on the subpoenaed diaries of Anaïs Nin).
Anaïs wrote the forward to Rainer’s The New Diary. More on the Rainer-Nin connection can be found on the Anaïs Nin Blog Sky Blue Press.
Gertrude Stein’s comment about diaries seems particularly apt here: “A Diary means yes indeed”.
A hearty shout out of Yes Indeeds to these two talented writers, fellow PhDs, friends and memoirists, Rainer and Raab who we met at the extraordinary Nin event held in Los Angeles last Saturday coordinated by West Hollywood’s first poet laureate, Steven Reigns. More on the conference Anaïs Nin’s Influence: Women Who Knew Nin. later when official photos are posted. Personal photos from the afternoon will be added in upcoming posts.
To Order The New Diary with the Forward by Anaïs Nin
