Acclaimed memoirist and teacher Vivian Gornick joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the origins of her approach to memoir, the crucial difference between situations and stories, why implicating ourselves in our work makes us trustworthy to our reader, clarifying our narratives, how she discovered what her story was truly about, why some writing questions are unanswerable, and her well-loved and oft-repeated advice: “In order for the drama to deepen we must see the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.” Also in this episode: -Autofiction -the importance of trusted readers and editors -seeing ourselves clearly   Books mentioned in this episode: -Autofiction by Annie Ernaux -The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick -Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick -The Odd Woman and the City by Vivian Gornick Vivian Gornick is a feminist critic, journalist, essayist, and memoirist who was born in the Bronx and grew up in a family of working-class immigrants.  Meghan O’Rourke of The Yale Review describes her as having written some of the most remarkable journalism of our time. “Her career got its start in the heady days of second-wave feminism, which she wrote about for the alternative weekly The Village Voice. In her work, she cultivated a fierce and unapologetic intellectual voice that could also be intensely personal. Another way to put it: she made powerful, no-holds-barred arguments, but she was also a gifted storyteller.” She is the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship and her essays and articles have appeared in Bookforum, the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, the New York Times Book Review, the New Yorker, Threepenny Review, and the Women's Review of Books. She taught for many years in MFA programs all over the country, including those at the University of Houston, the University of Arizona, Sarah Lawrence College, and the New School in New York City, and in 2015 she served as the Bedell Distinguished Visiting Professor in the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. Some of her books include The Men In My Life, The End of the Novel of Love, Approaching Eye Level, Essays in Feminism, The Odd Woman and the City, Fierce Attachments, and The Situation and the Story. — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Cait West joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up in and leaving Christian patriarchy, indoctrination, identifying and writing about the rifts she felt in herself and her family, gender oppression, using geology as a metaphor, moving from memoir in essays to a more linear form, ethical and legal concerns when writing about others, coming to grips with abuse, purity culture, and her memoir Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy. Also in this episode: -protecting anonymity in those we write about -trauma therapy -protecting ourselves by taking breaks when writing    Books mentioned in this episode:  -Mothers of Sparta by Dawn Davies -Flesh and Blood by N. West Moss -Wiving by Caityln Myer   Cait West is a writer and editor based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her work has been published in The Revealer, Religion Dispatches, Fourth Genre, and Hawai`i Pacific Review, among others. As an advocate and a survivor of the Christian patriarchy movement, she serves on the editorial board for Tears of Eden, a nonprofit providing resources for survivors of spiritual abuse, and cohosts the podcast Survivors Discuss. Her debut memoir, Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy, releases on April 30, 2024.   Connect with Cait: Website: https://www.caitwest.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caitwestwrites TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@caitwestwrites Substack: https://caitwest.substack.com/ Get Cait’s Book: https://www.caitwest.com/book — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Sue William Silverman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about claiming our stories, creative nonfiction as an act of affirmation and courage, tapping into artistic masks, discovering answers along the way, the aware and the unaware voice, writing metaphorically and sensorily, the arc of reflection and the arc of action, her decades of teaching at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA program and her newest book Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul.   Also mentioned in this episode:  -the revision long-haul -our many writerly voices -Sue’s complete reading list   Books mentioned in this episode: -I wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl by Kelle Groom -Sue's Reading List: https://www.suewilliamsilverman.com/click_here_to_see_sue_william_silverman_s_contemporary_creative_nonfiction_readin_71566.htm   Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author of eight works of nonfiction and poetry. Her most recent book is "Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul." Her previous book, "How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences," won the gold star in Foreword Reviews Indie Book of the Year Award and the Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature. Other works include "Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction," made into a Lifetime TV movie; "Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You," which won the AWP Award; and "The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew." She is faculty co-chair in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts.    Connect with Sue: Website: www.SueWilliamSilverman.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SueWilliamSilverman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suewilliamsilverman/ Get Sue’s Books: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sue+william+silverman&crid=3L3XIG0XVQ21Z&sprefix=%2Caps%2C123&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_1_0_recent — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about listening to and putting our younger selves on the page, recognizing family codes we can no longer adhere to, place as a character in memoir, writing like nobody will ever see our work, how shame and pain can manifest as silence, sharing with readers what we may not be able to reveal to loved ones, the contracts we enter as writers of memoir, creating intimacy on the page, and her new memoir Loose of Earth.   Also mentioned in this episode:  -the toll of forever chemicals on our bodies and homes -incorporating environmental elements -managing our grief   Books mentioned in this episode: -Mil Town by Kerrie Arsenault -Full Body Burden by Kristen Iverson -The Yellow House by Sarah Broom -Ground Glass by Karen Savage   Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn teaches in the University of Chicago Creative Writing Program. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in Colorado Review, Guernica, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, and swamp pink, and was listed as notable in Best American Essays.   Connect with Kathleen: Website: https://www.kdblackburn.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thequietwildlife/ Get her book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/loose-of-earth-a-memoir-kathleen-dorothy-blackburn/20690152 — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Kate Manne joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about coming of age in fatphobic culture, disentangling the threads of weight, health, and diet culture, the racism at the root of anti-fatness, writing ourselves out and then back into our work, the psycho-social consequences of fatphobia on our bodies, the shame around shame, organizing our time, writing while mothering a young child, gathering and incorporating research in our work, and her new book Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia.   Also in this episode: -the rhetoric around dieting -becoming self-compassionate through writing -why we might not trust pleasure    Books mentioned in this episode: Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun L. Harrison Hunger by Roxanne Gay You Just Need to Lose Weight by Aubrey Gordon What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon Fat Talk by Virginia Sole Smith   Kate Manne is an associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University, where she’s been teaching since 2013. Before that, she was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Manne did her graduate work in philosophy at MIT, and works in moral, social, and feminist philosophy. She is the author of three books, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women, and Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia, which came out in January. You can subscribe to her substack newsletter, More to Hate, for musings on misogyny, fatphobia, their intersection, and more.  Connect with Kate: Website: http://www.katemanne.net/ Substack: https://katemanne.substack.com/ X: https://twitter.com/kate_manne, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kate_manne Get “Unshrinking” here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/722318/unshrinking-by-kate-manne/   Kate Manne's first interview with Ronit on The Body Myth: https://ronitplank.com/2024/03/04/the-body-myth-misogyny-fatphobia-and-the-morality-of-size-ft-dr- About Ronit Subscribe to Ronit's Memoir Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank?utm_source=profile-page Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Jo

Suzette Mullen joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about digging to find a deeper story and the question we need to ask in memoir, discovering where to begin by getting to the end of our manuscripts, the revision process as revelatory, the effect our memoirs have on loved ones, leaning on trusted readers and writers, her work as a nonfiction book coach, and her coming of age and coming out memoir The Only Way Through is Out.   Also in this episode:  -the querying process -working with a book coach -finding professional purpose   Books mentioned in this episode: In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan   Suzette Mullen (she/her) is a memoir and nonfiction book coach, retreat leader, and the author of the memoir The Only Way Through Is Out, published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, today.com, and Brevity among other outlets. As a book coach, Suzette guides writers to find their deeper stories and define their big ideas. A graduate of Harvard Law School and Wellesley College, and the mother of two young adult sons, Suzette made a big leap professionally and personally at midlife and now lives in Pennsylvania with her wife and their rescue pup.   Connect with Suzette: Website: https://www.yourstoryfinder.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urstoryfinder/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzette-mullen-lgbtq-book-coach/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourstoryfinder Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Suzette-Mullen-Author/100063523689955/ For info about the memoir: https://www.yourstoryfinder.com/books My free e-book: "Behind the Scenes: An Insider’s Guide to THE ONLY WAY THROUGH IS OUT https://www.yourstoryfinder.com/behindthescenes   — About Ronit Subscribe to Ronit's Memoir Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank?utm_source=profile-page Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.   More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Jo

Mimi Zieman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about thinking of ourselves as characters, hooking readers from the beginning, playing with structure, balancing our reflective narrator, trusting your reader and not overexplaining, the true self and the invisible self, when to listen to others and when to listen to ourselves, being the only woman on a historic climbing expedition, and her memoir Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure.   Also in this episode: -growing up a child of Holocaust survivors -pitching at live conferences -having patience with ourselves   Books mentioned in this episode: The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick Heavy by Kiese Laymon Wild by Cheryl Strayed Make a Scene by Jordan E. Rosenfeld To Show and to Tell by Phillip Lopate Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Book  by Allison K. Williams Bird by Bird by Anne Lammot Books by John Krakauer Books by Joan Didion   Mimi Zieman MD is the author of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, and The Post-Roe Monologues, a play that has been performed in multiple cities. A board-certified OB/GYN specialized in Complex Family Planning, she has also co-authored sixteen editions of Managing Contraception. Her writing has appeared in The Sun Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Newsweek, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, NBC News THINK, The Forward, and other publications. She’s spoken nationally and internationally and has been interviewed by major media outlets. Ranking high on her list of favorite things are a good adventure, dancing, and a rich cup of coffee.    Connect with Mimi: Website: www.mimiziemanmd.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mimiziemanmd/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mimiziemanmd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mimiziemanmd/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mimi-zieman-md-44ba68b/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mimiziemanmd    Get Mimi’s Book: Amazon: https://amzn.to/41sFEnB Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3Rjk9kk   About Ronit Subscribe to Ronit's Memoir Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank?utm_source=profile-page Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Lisa Cooper Ellison joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about therapy vs. memoir, taking care of our nervous systems while working on charged material, writing about trauma without retraumatizing ourselves, developing a robust self-care practice, how to avoid creating victim narratives in our memoirs, what to do with gaps in our memory, putting more of ourselves on the page, and her new podcast Writing Your Resilience.   Also in this episode: -signs of a trauma response -learning how to be present -neuroplasticity    Book mentioned in this episode: Writing to Heal by James Pennebaker Healing Trauma: Restoring the Wisdom of the Body by Peter A. Levine Trauma and Memory by Peter A. Levine Becoming the Love You Seek by Dr. Nicole Lepera Stash by Laura Cathcart Robbins Acetylene Torch Songs by Sue William Silverman What Happened to You by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey Hunger by Roxanne Gay Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn   Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, and trauma-informed writing coach with an Ed.S in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a background in mindfulness. She regularly presents and teaches courses on the use of mindfulness in writing, writing about trauma, the book proposal, and all things memoir. A regular contributor to the Jane Friedman blog, her essays and short stories have appeared in HuffPost, Hippocampus Literary Magazine, the New Guard Review, Kenyon Review Online, and Brevity, among others.   Connect with Lisa: Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisacooperellison/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lisacooperellison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-ellison-b5483840/   — About Ronit Subscribe to Ronit's Memoir Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank?utm_source=profile-page Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Paula Ramón joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about pivoting from journalism to memoir to tell the story of Venezuela’s collapse, understanding the history of her country before and after Chavez through her mother’s life, guilt, the physical and emotional losses she and her family have faced, the concept of democracy, when there’s no future in your country, emotional warfare and shrinking resources, the toll of migration on the body, and her memoir Motherland.   Also in this episode:  -working with translators -putting human faces to the facts -memoir as legacy   Books mentioned in this episode: La plaça del Diamant /The Time of the Doves by Mercè Rodoreda   Paula Ramón is a Venezuelan journalist who has lived and worked in China, the United States, Brazil, and Uruguay. She is currently a correspondent for Agence France-Presse, based in Los Angeles. She has written and reported for the New York Times, National Geographic, Columbia Journalism Review, and Piauí magazine, among other outlets.   Connect with Paula: X: https://twitter.com/paulacramon Motherland: https://www.amazon.com/Motherland-Memoir-Paula-Ram%C3%B3n/dp/1542036909/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3J0JIIKVB05O&keywords=motherland+by+paula+ramon&qid=1689103668&sprefix=motherland+by+paula+ramon%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-1 — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Ellen Weir Casey joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about infertility and becoming the mother of one of the world’s first IVF babies in the earliest days of assisted reproductive technology, the role guilt plays in women’s lives, being part of medical and women’s history, forgiving ourselves, reproductive freedom, and her memoir Unstoppable: Forging The Path To Motherhood In The Early Days Of IVF.   Also mentioned in this episode: -The Aspen Institute -giving our work time to settle -researching back in the days of microfiche   Books mentioned in this episode: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeuer Educated by Tara Westover Mad Man in the Woods by Jamie Gehring Ellen Weir Casey is the mother of one of the world's first IVF babies. Her memoir, Unstoppable:Forging The Path To Motherhood In The Early Days Of IVF, is a best seller and Zibby Book Award finalist. She speaks nationally and internationally about her unique experience in the earliest days of assisted reproductive technology.  Ellen has graduate and undergraduate degrees from Colorado College. She studied memoir writing at the Aspen Institute Summer Words program. Ellen lives in the shadow of Pike's Peak, in the foothills of Colorado Springs.   Connect with Ellen: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellen2956 Get Ellen’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-Forging-Path-Motherhood-Early/dp/1632994976 — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Karen DeBonis joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the obstacles and medical gaslighting she faced trying to uncover what ailed her son, postpartum depression, writing about difficult motherhoods, learning how to deal with conflict, sharing our pages with partners, promoting our work, a happy social media story, how she overcome her people pleasing ways to become a warrior mom and her new memoir Growth: A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived.   Also in this episode: -Munchausen by Proxy -marketing angles and memoir -highlighting our patterns in memoir   Books mentioned in this episode: Raising a Rare Girl by Heather Lanier Motherhood Exaggerated by Judith Hannan The Opposite of Certainty by Janine Urbaniak Reid   Karen DeBonis writes about motherhood, people-pleasing, and personal growth, inspired by the experience of raising her son, Matthew. Her debut memoir Growth: A Mother, Her Son, and the Brain Tumor They Survived was released by Apprentice House Press in May 2023. Karen’s work has appeared in The New York Times, Huff Post, Today.com, Newsweek.com, and others. A happy empty-nester, Karen lives in upstate New York with her husband of forty years.    Connect with Karen: Website: www.karendebonis.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.debonis.3 Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarenDeBonis IG: https://www.instagram.com/karendeboniswriter/ Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karendebonis/ Amazon purchase link: https://www.amazon.com/Growth-Mother-Brain-Tumor-Survived/dp/1627204350/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1672427791&sr=8-1 Bookshop purchase link: https://bookshop.org/p/books/growth-a-mother-her-son-and-the-brain-tumor-they-survived-karen-debonis/19468474?ean=9781627204354 — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Cathy Shields joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the role guilt and grief have played in her experience parenting a unique child, how she has navigated her daughter’s diagnosis of severe cognitive disability, writing about complicated mothers and complicated mothering, protecting children in our work, critical mothers, living in the contradiction, and her memoir The Shape of Normal.    Also in this episode: -not giving up -social anxiety -forgiving ourselves   Memoirs mentioned in this episode: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan DIdion  Educated by Tara Westover The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Raising a Rare Girl by Heather Lanier To Siri with Love by Judith Newman   Catherine (Cathy) Shields, M.S. Ed., is a retired early childhood teacher. She writes about parenting, disabilities, and self-discovery. In her debut memoir, The Shape of Normal, Cathy explores the truths and lies parents tell themselves. Her stories and essays have appeared in NBC Today, Newsweek, Bacopa Literary Review, Grown, and Flown,  Brevity Blog, Write City Magazine, The Manifest-Station, and elsewhere. Cathy lives in Miami, Florida. In her free time, Cathy likes to hike, kayak, and explore the Everglades National Park with her husband, to whom she’s been married forever.   Connect with Cathy:  Website: https://www.cathyshieldswriter.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathyshieldswriter LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cathy-shields-88487711b X: https://twitter.com/Catshields1 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cathy.p.shields.3 Substack: https://cathyshieldswriter.substack.com/ Get Cathy’s Book: https://www.vineleavespress.com/the-shape-of-normal-by-catherine-shields.html   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Joelle Tamraz joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about yoga cults and self-declared spiritual gurus, searching for something outside ourselves, mind control, transcendental meditation, capturing the emotional vulnerability of our memoir characters, the many drafts in our manuscripts, and the story of how she pried her way out of the decades-long spiritual emotional, financial, and physical abuse she writes about in her new memoir The Secret Practice: Eighteen Years on the Dark Side of Yoga.   Also in this episode: -critique groups -standing by our story -writing as a relationship with ourselves   Books mentioned in this episode: Writing Hard Stories by Melanie Brooks Love Sick by Sue William SIlveman The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls When She Comes Back by Ronit Plank   Joelle is a memoir and life writer who's been putting thoughts to paper ever since she learned about journaling in her eighth-grade English class. Before pivoting to writing full-time, she held senior roles in technology companies for over two decades and owned a yoga studio for ten years. She earned an Honors BA degree in social studies from Harvard and an MBA from INSEAD. She is also a certified life coach and a youth mentor. She has lived in the US and France and now resides in the UK with her husband and two dogs. The Secret Practice: Eighteen Years on the Dark Side of Yoga is her debut memoir.   Connect with Joelle: Website: https://joelletamraz.com X: https://twitter.com/joelletamraz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joelletamraz Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joelletamraz1 Get the book: https://books2read.com/joelletamraz   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Rona Maynard joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing ourselves to get lost in our writing, realizing you've actually been writing your book, observing our animal companions keenly, embracing surprises in our work, discovering joyful moments, looking for a narrative arc, using Scrivener, going more deeply, writing from the heart, and her memoir Starter Dog.   Also in this episode: -taking in the world around us -photographs as writing aids -learning who we are   Books mentioned in this episode: Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchet In the Key of New York by Rebecca McClanahan   Rona Maynard found happiness at 65—a story she tells in her new memoir Starter Dog: My Path to Joy, Belonging and Loving This World. She first broke into print at 14 with a short story about bullying and still receives fan mail from teens who are reading it in class. Rona capped a stellar career in magazines with a decade at the helm of Chatelaine, Canada’s leading magazine for women. Her editor’s column garnered a loyal following. When she disclosed a struggle with depression, she helped kickstart a national conversation about mental health. When Rona stepped away from corporate life, she had to learn to unwind. Her best teacher was a rescue mutt who had received his basic training in a prison. She has been married more than 50 years to her best friend, tech advisor and driver on a cross continental art adventure that took them to 49 museums in five weeks. Rona says road trips go better with a dog in the back seat.   Connect with Rona: Website: https://ronamaynard.com/ Medium: https://ronamaynard.medium.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rona.maynard/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronamaynard3278/?hl=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronamaynard/   Get Rona’s book: Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Starter-Dog-Belonging-Loving-World/dp/1770417230/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1690986860&sr=8-1 Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/starter-dog-my-path-to-joy-belonging-and-loving-this-world/18908036?ean=9781770417236&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fronamaynard.com%2F&source=IndieBound&title=Starter+Dog%3A+My+Path+to+Joy%2C+Belonging+and+Loving+This+World   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Ann Batchelder joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about using myth as a jumping point for interpreting ourselves, trusting intuition, the idea of mother failure, regret and letting go, addiction and recovery in loved ones, mental health stigma, deciding when to show loved ones the manuscript, and her memoir Craving Spring: A Mother’s Quest, a Daughter’s Depression, and the Greek Myth that Brought Them Together.   Also in this episode: -how stories save us -Alanon -mother guilt   Books mentioned in this episode: Beautiful Boy by David Sheff Wild by Cheryl Strayed Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald Eating in the Light of the Moon by Dr. Anita  Johnston Work by Pema Chodron Work by Tara Brach   Ann Batchelder is the author of Craving Spring: A Mother’s Quest, a Daughter’s Depression, and the Greek Myth that Brought Them Together. She served as Editor of FIBERARTS Magazine, was guest curator for the Asheville Art Museum where she designed and developed three major contemporary art exhibitions featuring artists such as Louise Bourgeois, Ann Hamilton, Sally Mann, Maya Lin, and Laurie Anderson, and was Director of Special Events for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Ann earned an MSW in psychotherapy and is the mother of two adult children.  Connect with Ann: Website: https://www.annbatchelder.com Facebook: https://facebook.com/ann.batchelder.9 Instagram: https://instagram.com/annbatchelder     — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Brooke Warner joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about nontraditional publishing, the massive sea change we’re seeing in memoir, how for authors visibility and marketing work is never done, protecting our memoir worlds, accountability groups, what all memoirs require, the genesis of She Writes Press, balancing her multiple roles, the project she is working on now and the many resources she offers memoirists.   Also in this episode: -when creativity merges with our working life -carving out time to write -Substack and content-creation   Books mentioned in this episode: Heavy by Kiese Laymon Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith   Brooke Warner is publisher of She Writes Press and SparkPress, president of Warner Coaching Inc., and author of Write On, Sisters!, Green-light Your Book, What’s Your Book?, and three books on memoir. Brooke is a TEDx speaker and the former Executive Editor of Seal Press. She’s the current Board Chair of the Bay Area Book Festival, and sits on the Board of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She writes a weekly Substack newsletter @brookewarner, and a regular column for Publishers Weekly.   Connect with Brooke: Website: www.brookewarner.com She Writes Press: www.shewritespress.com SparkPress: https://gosparkpress.com   Brooke’s memoir courses: www.writeyourmemoirinsixmonths.com www.magicofmemoir.com   About Ronit Subscribe to Ronit's Memoir Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank?utm_source=profile-page Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Joni B. Cole joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about following our creative hunches, what to look for in workshop groups and writing teachers, the power of positive reinforcement, the magic of revision, the right to tell our stories, her approach to teaching, the writer’s center she founded in White River Junction, Vermont and her new book of essays Party Like It’s 2044: Finding the Funny in Life and Death.   Also in this episode: -connecting with other writers -checking in on our expectations -celebrating ourselves   Books mentioned in this episode: Growing Up by Russell Baker One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty  Spare by Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay Shrill by Lindy West   Joni B. Cole is the author of seven books, including the new release "Party Like It’s 2044: Finding the Funny in Life and Death," and two acclaimed writing guides: "Good Naked: How to Write More, Write Better, and Be Happier" (listed as a “Best Books for Writers” by Poets & Writers magazine) and "Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive" ("I can't imagine a better guide to writing's rewards and perils than this fine book,” American Book Review). For over twenty-five years she has taught creative writing to adults through her own writer’s center in White River Junction, Vermont, through the Dartmouth Writer’s Society, and at a diversity of academic and nonprofit programs across the country. She is a contributor to The Writer magazine and Jane Friedman blog, and hosts the podcast “Author, Can I Ask You?”    Connect with Joni: Website: www.jonibcole.com The Writer’s Center of WRJ: www.thewriterscenterwrj.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joni.b.colewriter Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joni.cole.9   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Jane Wong joins Let’s Talk memoir for a conversation about the challenge of reflection in memoir, writing that teems with the specific and particular, capturing the experience of being a chinese american woman on the page, writing about exes and domestic violence, keeping ourselves safe while creating, constellations in our lives, avoiding sentimentality, and her new memoir which she calls a love song to her mother, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City. Also in this episode: -how she’s never funny in poems -the super secret Jane Wong’s been keeping -finding your people   Books mentioned in this episode: Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow Tastes like War by Grace M. Cho Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha The Grave on the Wall by Brandon Shimoda  Jane Wong is the author of the debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, out now from Tin House (2023). She is also the author of two books of poetry: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016).    She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney's, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and Want: Women Writing About Desire (Catapult).   A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room, 4Culture, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay, the Jentel Foundation, UCross, Mineral School, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Loghaven, and others. She grew up in a Chinese American restaurant on the Jersey shore and lives in Seattle.   Connect with Jane: Website: https://janewongwriter.com/ Get Jane’s Book: https://tinhouse.com/book/meet-me-tonight-in-atlantic-city/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paradeofcats   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Lisa Niver joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about disagreeing and then agreeing with your agent, her career in travel, accountability groups, working with developmental editors and book and proposal coaches, divorce, all the non-writerly jobs being a published memoirist requires, and her new book Brave-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty.   Also in this episode: -taking time to rest -switching where our memoirs begin -asking for help   Books mentioned in this episode: Getting Stones with the Savages by Maarten Troost The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi Super Survivors by David B, Feldman and  Lee Daniel Kravetz Group by Christie Tate BFF by Christie Tate Maybe You Should Talk With Someone by Lori Gottlieb   Lisa Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries on six continents. This University of Pennsylvania graduate sailed across the seas for seven years with Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean, and Renaissance Cruises and spent three years backpacking across Asia. Discover her articles in publications from AARP: The Magazine and AAA Explorer to WIRED and Wharton Magazine, as well as her site WeSaidGoTravel.   On her award nominated global podcast, Make Your Own Map, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors, and as a journalist has been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty-two times.   Named a #3 travel influencer for 2023, Niver talks travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, her YouTube channel with over 2 million views, and in her memoir, Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty.   Connect with Lisa: Website: https://lisaniver.com/braveish/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisaniver Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lisaniver Twitter: https://twitter.com/lisaniver Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.niver Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/wesaidgotravel/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaellenniver/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LisaNiver We Said Go Travel: http://wesaidgotravel.com/ Lisa’s Series of articles: Navigating Book Promotion: Expert Tips from PR Proshttps://www.wesaidgotravel.com/book-promotion/ Unlocking Book Promotion Success: Insider Strategies from PR Experts (Part 2)https://www.wesaidgotravel.com/book-promotion-2/ Mastering Book Promotion Strategies: Proven Insights from PR Experts (Part 3)https://www.wesaidgotravel.com/book-promotion-3/   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Rosa Lowinger joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up in Cuba, her storied career in art restoration, taking a closer look at the complicated and evolving relationship she’s had with her mother, sending manuscripts to family and exes before they go to press, protecting loved ones in our work, how much metaphor is too much, and her new memoir Dwell Time.   Also in this episode: -finding community -working with book coaches -approaching writing like a job Books mentioned in this episode: Educated by Tara Westover Born a Crime by Trevor Noah Blow Your House Down by Gina Frangelo Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart The Year of Magical Thinking by Jon Didion H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald Liar by Rob Roberge The Distance Between Us by Rayna Grande Avid Reader by Robert Gottlieb When She Comes Back by Ronit Plank   Rosa Lowinger is a Cuban-born American art conservator and founder of RLA Conservation of Art + Architecture, LLC. (www.rlaconservation.com), the U.S.’s largest woman-owned materials conservation practice. She is also a published author, most well-known for Tropicana Nights: The Life and Times of the Legendary Cuban Nightclub (Harcourt, 2005), a book on Havana’s pre-Castro nightclub era. Other fictional works by Rosa include The Encanto File, a play produced off-Broadway by the Women’s Project and Productions and published in Rowing to America and Sixteen Other Short Plays, edited by Julia Miles (Smith & Kraus, 2002), and The Empress of the Waves, a short story published in the anthology Island in the Light/Isla en la Luz (Trapublishing, 2019).   Rosa’s academic and professional distinctions include the 2008-09 Rome Prize at the American Academy in Rome, where she researched the history of vandalism, graffiti, and street art; and Fellow status in the American Institute for Conservation and the Association for Preservation Technology. She holds an M.A. in Art History and Conservation from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts, lectures regularly at numerous universities around the country, and serves on the boards of the Amigos of the Cuban Heritage Collection at University of Miami, Florida Association of Museums, the Partnership for Sacred Places, and the Florida Association of Public Art Professionals. Rosa co-curated the exhibits Promising Paradise: Cuban Allure American Seduction (Wolfsonian Museum, 2016) and Concrete Paradise: Miami Marine Stadium (Coral Gables Museum, 2013). She writes regularly for academic and popular media about conservation, the arts, and Cuba. Her 1999 cover story on Havana for Preservation spawned a career in cultural travel that has taken her to Cuba over 100 times since 1992. She lives in Los Angeles and Miami and is married to Todd Kessler.   Connect with Rosa: Rosa’s Website:www.rosalowinger.com Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/rosa_Lowinger RLA Conservation’s Website: www.rlaconservation.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rlaconservation Purchase Dwell Time: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dwell-time-rosa-lowinger/1143192800 https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dwell-Time/Rosa-Lowinger/9781955905275   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers