I Will Always Write Back Study Guide

Caitlin Alifirenka is an ER nurse who lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and daughters. She first met Martin Ganda in 1997 as part of a school-assigned pen pal program, and the two became best friends. In 2015, she and Martin published I Will Always Write Back, a memoir that recounts the story of their friendship, starting with its long-distance beginnings and ending with when they first met in person. Caitlin continues to do events related to the book. Martin Ganda grew up in Chisamba Singles, one of the poorest regions of Zimbabwe at the time. After meeting Caitlin through a pen pal writing program, the two kept up a correspondence that would last for years. Always good at school, Martin eventually went on (with some help from Caitlin’s family) to get a scholarship to study at Villanova University. Martin later got his MBA from Duke University and went on to work with investment banks in New York City. Liz Welch is a journalist and memoirist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Before I Will Always Write Back, she was best known for writing The Kids Are All Right, an award-winning memoir about her parents that she co-authored with her siblings.

When Caitlin and Martin were born in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan was president of the United States, and Robert Mugabe was prime minister (and later president) of Zimbabwe. The 1990s and early 2000s, when most of I Will Always Write Back takes place, were a time of economic decline and high inflation in Zimbabwe. The Mugabe administration blamed this decline on Western nations and on white farmers living in Zimbabwe (even condoning violent—sometimes deadly—seizure of land from these farmers). This caused Zimbabwe to lose international support and fall deeper into economic decline. Meanwhile, in the United States, college tuitions were high relative to the rest of the world and rising—this is why Martin’s dream of attending a U.S. university was so difficult. Another historical event that impacts the book’s characters is the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which occur midway through the memoir. On 9/11, hijackers crashed passenger planes into the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The attacks led to heightened security efforts in the United States, including tighter borders, which also helps explain why it was difficult for a foreigner like Martin to study in the country.

I Will Always Write Back is a contemporary coming-of-age memoir intended for a mass audience. Some of the most influential books in this genre include The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr, Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam Jr., and  Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (which also takes place in a semi-rural area of Pennsylvania). Liz Welch’s first book, The Kids Are All Right, was the book that established her as a memoirist, and her experiences with that book influenced the way that she helped Caitlin and Martin tell their own story—it is also a memoir with co-authors that is told from different points of view.