Movie of Oregon Author’s Memoir is Directed by Oscar-Nominated Actress Kristen Stewart
The award-winning memoir, The Chronology of Water by Oregon author Lidia Yuknavitch published in 2011, has again made headlines – this time as a movie directed by Oscar-nominated actress, Kristen Stewart.
Lidia Yuknavitch Lives and Writes in Portland
Yuknavitch lives in Portland with her husband, Andy Mingo, who co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with her.
The dynamic duo are editors of an indie press, the Chiasmus Press. Yuknavitch works at the MFA faculty at Eastern Oregon University at La Grande where she teaches writing, women’s studies, literature, and film.
The Chronology of Water was filmed over six weeks in Malta and Latvia and wrapped in July. It tells the story of Yuknavitch as an Olympic hopeful swimmer who escapes her abusive father and suicidal, alcoholic mother, after winning a college scholarship in Texas.
Drugs and alcohol ruin her college aspirations and Yuknavitch moves to Eugene where she becomes a student under the tutorship of Ken Kesey at the University of Oregon. Yuknavitch is one of 13 graduates chosen to write the novel, Caverns, in collaboration with Kesey.
The Film Has a Double Interest for Oregonians
The release of the film offers Oregonians a double interest. Apart from portraying the memoirs of its celebrity-status resident, Lidia Yuknavitch, The Chronology of Water features Jim Belushi, star of the TV series “Growing Belushi,” about his cannabis business in Oregon.
National bestsellers by Yuknavitch include the novels are The Small Backs of Children, The Book of Joan, and Dora: A Headcase. The Chronology of Water is a bestselling memoir.
Her works have been acknowledged with a Willamette Writers Award and two Oregon Books Awards. She was a finalist in the 2012 PEN Center Creative Notification Award and the 2017 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize.
Lidia’s love of her husband Andy and son, Miles, and her career as an author and teacher, was the turning point in her chaotic drug and alcohol-fueled life.