Zoe FitzGerald Carter | Author

Zoe FitzGerald Carter
Memoir writer

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Sunnyside Up: An Evening of No-Holds-Barred Optimism at the Historic Red Vic Movie House

May.10.2012

Sunnyside Up: An Evening of No-Holds-Barred Optimism at the Historic Red Vic Movie House

Join the SF Writers’ Grotto, Booksmith & friends for a literary cabaret night filled with prose, hijinks, hula, comedy, rock and clown foolery. Featuring words by Beth Lisick, booty shaking rock by Baby & the Luvies, the Hawaiian hula charms of Constance Hale, sultry siren songs by Laura Fraser and Zoe FitzGerald Carter, poetry-inspired rhythms by Jason Roberts, comedic delights by Kasper Hauser and Gretchen & Dr. Schmidtt of Literary Clownfoolery, the one-man, one guitar madness of Larry Gallagher, storytelling by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, Maw Shein Win, and Isaac “The Rumpus” Fitzgerald and more secret surprises…. A portion of the proceeds will benefit 826 Valencia.

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PUBLISHED: Mar.01.2011

Imperfect Endings: A Daughter's Story of Love, Loss, and Letting Go

Zoe Carter’s busy life on the West Coast with her husband and daughters takes an unexpected detour when her glamorous, independent-minded mother, Margaret, decides she wants to “end things.” Tired of living with Parkinson’s disease, Margaret declares she is no longer willing to go where the illness is taking her. Unsure how—or when—she will end her life, she is certain of one...

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PUBLISHED: Mar.02.2010

Imperfect Endings: A Daughter's Tale of Life and Death

After 20 years of living with a chronic illness, Zoe FitzGerald Carter's mother decided to end her life - and asked her three daughters to help her. For months, the decision dragged on as her mother changed her methods and her "death dates," stirring up difficult family memories, sibling rivalries, and questions about love and loyalty. As Zoe and her sisters struggled to...

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Zoe's Latest Blogs

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Apr.19.2012 - 10:45 am

Class: Navigating the Family Memoir

Dear Friends: I will be teaching a class on "Navigating the Family Memoir" at The San Francisco Writer's Grotto starting this Tuesday night (April 24th) and continuing the...

Feb.22.2012 - 11:28 am

How The Mother Daughter Relationship Changes And Evolves

It took crashing the car while texting for my college freshman daughter to start being nice to me again. It happened three weeks into her five-week Christmas vacation, a period...

Dec.15.2011 - 3:52 pm

Saying Goodbye to Wine

Catching sight of the rows of bottles in my neighborhood wine store the other day—a holiday banner hanging merrily in the window—I felt a pang of sadness and regret. Each of the...

Sep.26.2011 - 5:38 pm

A Tribute to Kara Kennedy and Eleanor Mondale

Kara, her parents, Joan and Ted, and her brother Edward circa 1968 Kara Kennedy, daughter of Senator Ted Kennedy, died last Friday, September 16th at the age of fifty-one of a...

Comments from Zoe

Mar.16.2011 - 11:02 am

In response to: The Ghost in My Quilt

Thank you

For sharing that, Rina. And I'm so sorry for your loss. Losing our parents -- and perhaps especially our mothers -- is...

Jan.11.2011 - 3:30 pm

In response to: In search of discipline

Any new idea that makes me write is a good one...

I think the 100 word a day idea is fabulous! Nothing like incremental goals to make the vast abyss of book writing less...

Dec.21.2010 - 1:18 pm

In response to: Baby Boomers Are Bummin'

agreed

Ha! Being on the younger end makes me nervous too!

Oct.13.2010 - 12:13 pm

In response to: Faking It: The Case for Pseudonyms

Don't like composites

Hi Beth, I'm with you, composite characters make me very uncomfortable. I think, at that point, you are essentially...

Oct.05.2010 - 7:52 pm

In response to: Nothing Left to Burn: A Wesleyan Student’s Final Message

thank you, Jules

..for your comment. That sounds like a horrendous event for your family and I am so sorry for all of you. What a...

About Zoe

I'm a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and have written for numerous publications including The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue and Salon. Imperfect Endings is my first memoir. The book won first place in the Pacific Northwest Writer'...

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