Let’s Talk Memoir

224. Writing About Chasing an Unconventional Life and Feeling Haunted

Alex Poppe joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about working in conflict zones, living abroad and negotiating cultural differences, teaching in northern Iraq, youth and female resilience, pursuing something elusive, using fiction techniques for creative nonfiction and essays, not standing on a soapbox in memoir, moving from the personal to the universal, safe domesticity vs. unpredictable intensity, feeling haunted, the tension between wanting to settle down and set roots but feeling desperate to travel, and her love letter to teaching the new memoir-in-essay Breakfast Wine: A Memoir of Chasing an Unconventional Life and Finding a Way Home.
 
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story
 
Also in this episode:
-field reporting
-theTulsa Remote Program 
-starting chapters in scene and dialogue
Books mentioned in this episode 
-Woman in Berlin by Anonymous
-The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from The Border by Francisco Cantú
-Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett
-The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
-No Good Men Among the Living by Anand Gopal
-The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg 
-The Natashas:The Horrific Inside Story of Slavery, Rape, and Murder in the Global Sex Trade by Victor Malarek
-Notebooks on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen 
-Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell on Earth by Heidi Postlewait, Kenneth Cain and Andrew Thomson
 
Having worked in conflict zones such as Iraq, the West Bank, and Ukraine, Alex Poppe writes about fierce and funny women rebuilding their lives in the wake of violence. She is the award-winning author of four works of literary fiction. Breakfast Wine, her memoir-in-essay of her near decade teaching and volunteering in northern Iraq, celebrates women and youth resilience, post-conflict. Most recently, she served as the strategic communications advisor for a democracy and governance initiative at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Alex continues to be awed by place, people, and their stories. 
 
Connect with Alex:
Website: www.alexpoppe.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallyalexpoppe/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alex_poppe_author/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alex.poppe.16/
Get the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/breakfast-wine-alex-poppe/22155518?ean=9781627205931
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

223. Creating the Life That We Want to Live Inside with Words featuring Louise Southerden

Louise Southerden joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about building a tiny home in Australia by hand during the Covid pandemic, being a travel writer for much of her career, choosing freedom over security, writing about exes, struggling with how much backstory to put in, narrative arc and the hero’s journey, firming up a timeline, wanting to be fair in depicting loved ones, taking care of and pacing ourselves while we’re writing, creating the life that we want to live inside with words, being led by how the story wants to be told, and her new memoir TINY: A Memoir About Love, Letting Go and a Very Small House.
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story
Also in this episode:
-using Scrivener
-the freelance writing life
-what one really needs to be happy
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
-Tracks by Robyn Davidson
-Unfinished Woman by Robyn Davidson
-Wifedom by Anna Funder
-The Little Red Writing Book by Mark Tredinnick 
-Things I Learned From Falling by Claire Nelson
 
Louise Southerden is an Australian author and award-winning travel writer who has spent more than 25 years travelling all over the world and won the Australian Travel Writer of the Year award a record five times. She’s the author of five non-fiction books including Surf’s Up, the world’s first surfing guide for women; a working holiday guide to Japan, where she once lived for a year and a half; an anthology of her best adventure travel tales; and her latest, TINY: A memoir about love, letting go and a very small house, published by Hardie Grant Explore. Originally from Sydney, Louise now lives and writes in her tiny home by the sea in northern NSW, Australia.
 
Connect with Louise: Website: https://www.noimpactgirl.com/
More info about TINY on Louise's Substack: https://noimpactgirl.substack.com/p/tiny-a-memoir-about-love-letting-af1
TINY on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Memoir-About-Letting-Small/dp/174117922X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.cDx-4ItRYaLsBKW5vu1dfQ.Pozgks-L91kJZfC4hCxsGFIuB_FqZlo7oJW31ra3GYU&qid=1755581587&sr=8-1
Living Big in a Tiny House episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipAxKp5fbvQ 
Substack: https://noimpactgirl.substack.com/ 
FB: https://www.facebook.com/noimpactgirl/#
Fishpond: https://www.fishpond.com/Books/Tiny-Louise-Southerden/9781741179224
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

222. Unpacking the Scripts We’ve Been Handed featuring Anna Rollins

Anna Rollins joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the relationship between evangelical purity culture and diet culture, incorporating research and reporting into personal narrative, the intricate connections between religion, God, and body shame, fearing our own desires, extreme thinking, body dysmorphia, viewing our bodies as suspect, the physical effects of belief systems, writing memoir plus, tying our work to the culture, learning how to pitch and get bylines, the logistics of placing short pieces in large outlets, religion on our own terms, rejecting scripts, and her new memoir Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl.
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story
 
This episode is brought to you by Prose Playground. If you’ve been writing for years but haven’t published, have tons of ideas but can’t get them on the page, if you have a book coming out, or you’re simply curious about writing, join Prose Playground—an active, supportive writing community for writers at every level. Visit www.ProsePlayground.com to sign up free.
 
Also in this episode:
-church hurt
-publishing scores of stand alone essays
-tuning into the newscycle and calendar to sell our work
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum
Writing That Gets Noticed by Estelle Erasmus
The Byline Bible by Susan Shapiro
The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
 
Anna Rollins is the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl. Her groundbreaking debut memoir examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites. Her writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Salon, Joyland, and more. She’s also written scholarly articles about composition and writing center studies. She’s an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years. She is a 2025 West Virginia Creative Network Literary Arts Fellow. A lifelong Appalachian, she lives with her husband in West Virginia where they’re raising their three small children.
 
Connect with Anna:
Website: http://annajrollins.com
Substack: http://annajrollins.substack.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/annajrollins
Book: https://amzn.to/3Lu6uHR
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

221. Writing and Processing Old, Longstanding Anger featuring Steve Eichenblatt

Steve Eichenblatt joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing a father through abandonment, the abuse he endured from his adoptive father, living in a household of trauma, feeling emotionally disconnected, verbal abuse and the wounds that don’t go away, embracing vulnerability and learning how to connect, writing and processing old, longstanding anger, sharing manuscripts with family before publication, the response to our narratives from siblings and parents, fighting for our voice and agency, learning to help ourselves, being accountable, and the 10-year process of writing his new memoir Pretend They Are Dead.
Also in this episode:
-not giving up
-finding your writing space and time
-writing without boundaries 
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
-Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
-The Great Santini by Pat Conroy
-Stay True by Hua Hsa
 
Steven Scott Eichenblatt is a graduate of Florida State University and the University of Florida College of Law. A practicing attorney with Page and Eichenblatt, and father of five, he has spent over thirty years advocating for children as a pro bono guardian ad litem and representing families of first responders killed on 9/11. He lives with his wife, Melissa Ross, in Orlando, Florida.
 
Connect with Steve:
Website: www.stevenscotteichenblatt.com
 
Ronit’s upcoming 10-week online memoir course: https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

220. How to Be Unmothered: Escaping Enmeshment, Going No Contact, and Cocooning Ourselves featuring Camille U. Adams

Dr. Camille U. Adams joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about generations of mothers choosing to unmother their children, colonial violence in Trinidad and Tobago, stifling relationships, cognitive dissonance, finding the psychological, emotional, and geographical distance we need, narcissism and the golden child, not wanting to tell the story we ultimately find a way to tell, being a poet first, retracting and pulling back to get close to ourselves and write, exigence in memoir, going no contact with family, cocooning ourselves, finding support systems that work, getting into literary magazines, how content creates form, and her 300-page poem How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian memoir.
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story
 
Also in this episode:
-the narcissist’s nest
-using elements of fiction
-trusting yourself
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-Thick and Other Essays by Dr. Tressie McMillam Cottom
-Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz
-Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat
-Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
-The Dragon Can’t Dance by Earl Lovelace
-The Hurting Kind by Ada Limon
 
Dr. Camille U. Adams is a writer from Trinidad and Tobago. Camille is the author of the memoir, How To Be Unmothered: a Trinidadian memoir, released August 2025 with Restless Books. Her manuscript was recognised as a finalist in the Restless Books Prize in New Immigrant Writing 2023. Camille earned her MFA in Poetry from City College, CUNY and a Ph.D. in Creative Nonfiction from FSU. She has been awarded Best of The Net - nonfiction 2024, and has received five Pushcart Prize nominations, three Best of the Net nominations, and recognition for a notable essay in Best American Essays 2022. Among Camille’s awarded fellowships is an inaugural Tin House Reading Fellowship, an inaugural Granta nature writing workshop fellowship, an inaugural Anaphora Arts Italy Writing Retreat Fellowship, a McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, a Community of Writers Erica Ellner Memorial Scholarship, and a Roots Wounds Words Fellowship. Additionally, Camille is a Tin House alum and has received support from Kenyon Writers Workshop, VONA, and others. She has served as a juried reader for Tin House for two consecutive years, as a CNF editor at Variant Lit, and as an assistant editor at Split Lip Magazine and at The Account. Camille currently lives in Brooklyn where she teaches and is hard at work on book two. 
 
Connect with Camille:
Website: www.camilleuadams.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/camille_u_adams
Twitter: https://x.com/camille_u_adams
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@camille_u_adams
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/camilleuadams.bsky.social
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

219. Revealing More Than We Intended featuring Lora Arbrador

Lora Abrador joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation weaving together three themes in her memoir, writing about the ancient technique of egg tempura paint, incorporating 300 images in her book, gaining confidence as an artist, struggling to form a lasting romantic partnership, nature vs. nurture, our innate personalities, self-actualization, love addiction, feeling like a wounded bird, really connecting with an editor, publishing options, working with copyeditors, factchecking, recording an audio book, not intending to reveal ourselves but doing so anyway, and her new memoir Art & Love: My Life Illuminated in Egg Tempera.
 
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story  
This episode is brought to you by Prose Playground. If you’ve been writing for years but haven’t published, have tons of ideas but can’t get them on the page, if you have a book coming out, or you’re simply curious about writing, join Prose Playground—an active, supportive writing community for writers at every level. Visit www.ProsePlayground.com to sign up free.
Also in this episode: 
-trade reviews 
-beta readers
-proof readers and proof listeners
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
Editing the RedPen Way: Ten Steps for Successful Self-Editing by Anne Rainbow
When She Comes Back: a memoir by Ronit Plank
Disconnected: Portrait of a Neurodiverse Marriage by Eleaonor Vincent
Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over  by Nell Painter
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Night Studio: A Memoir of Philip Guston by Musa Mayer
Hold Still by Sally Mann
My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
At the age of 19, Lora Arbrador was given a recipe for making egg tempera, a homemade paint that combines colorful pigments with egg yolk. Like a musician with a strong affinity for a particular instrument, Ahrbrador found her creative home in egg tempera.  To support her art practice, Arbrador became a registered nurse and the medical world has been the inspiration for many of her paintings, including the series, Ways of Dying: A Chronicle of the AIDS Epidemic. Her painting, Don’t Go My Friend: The Death of John Walsh, MD, won first place at the Art and Healing exhibit at Artwest Gallery. 
 
In 1997, Arbrador co-founded the Society of Tempera Painters which was modeled after the 1901 Society of Painters in Tempera in England.  Her first book, A History of Roman Calligraphy, is housed in the Marjorie G. and Carl W. Stern Book Arts & Special Collections Center of the San Francisco Public Library. Arbrador has exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the US, including South Bend Regional Museum of Art, Wenatchee Valley College Art Gallery and the Bade Museum of the Pacific School of Religion. Arbrador is the former Editorial Director of NurseWeek magazine Art & Love: My Life Illuminated in Egg Tempera.
 
Connect with Lora:
Website: www.artandlovebook.com
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arbrador
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/arbrador
https://www.facebook.com/lora.arbrador/
substack: artblotterplus.substack.com
Purchase the book: www.artandlovebook.com/shop
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

218. Honoring Our Own Momentum featuring Gretchen McGowan

Gretchen McGowan joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the grit and glam of the 90s in New York, her career producing independent films, the thrill of creating something from nothing, honoring our own process, willing to be self-deprecating, negotiating manuscript revisions in digestible ways, keeping writing momentum in mind, getting character-you into trouble, when everyone around you seems to have it figured out, loving the hustle of NY, scrappiness, her role as the head of Goldcrest films, and her memoir Flying In: My Adventures in Filmmaking.
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story 
This episode is brought to you by Prose Playground. If you’ve been writing for years but haven’t published, have tons of ideas but can’t get them on the page, if you have a book coming out, or you’re simply curious about writing, join Prose Playground—an active, supportive writing community for writers at every level. Visit www.ProsePlayground.com to sign up free.
 
Also in this episode:
-doing what works
-transcendental mediation
-women’s career memoirs
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
-An Unfinished Woman by Lillian Hellman
-The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith
-Fast Draft Your Memoir by Rachael Herron
 
Gretchen McGowan is an award-winning producer and the head of production for Goldcrest Films in New York City where she has overseen titles such as Cat Person, Carol and Restrepo. Gretchen independently produced Jim Jarmusch’s The Limits of Control, helped to make his iconic film Coffee and Cigarettes and has made over sixty films across the globe. Her new memoir is Flying In: My Adventures in Filmmaking.
 
Connect with Gretchen:
Website: www.gretchenmcgowan.com
Links: https://linktr.ee/gretchenmcgowan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gretmcgowan
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class
Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

217. Writing Real Sex in Memoir featuring Sarah Gallucci

Sarah Gallucci joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about being the child of a teen mom and early influences on ideas of love and relationships, pivoting from journalism to reporting on her own life, the hey day of mommy blogging, when relationships become incredibly messy, how we experience pleasure, manipulative, coercive, and nonconsensual sex, giving a partner a hall pass, measuring the brokenness of a marriage, writing when you’re in the thick of it, the aftermath of divorce, why writing real sex is imperative to literature, the autonomy of self-publishing, when family stops speaking to us after publication, strategies to writing about sex, and Laid: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and Marriage.
 
Info/Registration for Ronit’s 10-Week Memoir Class Memoir Writing: Finding Your Story https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/memoir-writing-finding-your-story 
 
This episode is brought to you by Prose Playground. If you’ve been writing for years but haven’t published, have tons of ideas but can’t get them on the page, if you have a book coming out, or you’re simply curious about writing, join Prose Playground—an active, supportive writing community for writers at every level. Visit www.ProsePlayground.com to sign up free.
 
Also in this episode:
-trusting your truth
-blogging and going viral
-writing from a raw, unprocessed place
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-Hunger by Roxanne Gay
-Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
-Wild by Cheryl Strayed
-Push by Sapphire
 
Sarah Gallucci is the author of Laid: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and Marriage. She has written reported features for CNN, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Harper's Bazaar, among others. Sarah works as a professor at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also a speaker, and has given two TEDx talks. Most importantly, Sarah is the mother of two with storytelling, creative healing, and pasta in her blood.
 
Connect with Sarah:
Website: www.SarahGallucci.com
Instagram: @_Sarah_Gallucci_
TikTok: @_Sarah_Gallucci_
Threads: @_Sarah_Gallucci_
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Laid-Memoir-Love-Sex-Marriage/dp/B0DVCBXVZ7/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0
Talks: https://www.sarahgallucci.com/speaking
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social
 

216. Multidisciplinary Approaches to Memoir and Consuming Art in All Its Forms featuring Elizabeth Rynecki and Tony Kaplan

Elizabeth Rynecki and Tony Kaplan join Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about multi-disciplinary approaches to memoir, the different skills we need for storytelling modalities, their new podcast That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage, searching for answers to family stories, the documentary about Elizabeth’s great grandfather who perished in the Holocaust, drawing connections, how to weave two very disparate things, being humble, the hoops we jump through to get a project made, ADHD and autism, capturing a spectrum of voices, respecting privacy, consuming art in all its formats to enrich your own creativity, Elizabeth’s memoir Chasing Portraits: A Great Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy.
Also in this episode:
-steep learning curves
-mother-son challenges
-the importance of vulnerability in storytelling
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-Story of a Poem: A Memoir by Matthew Zapruder
-I Am I Am I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell
-Unraveling by Peggy Orenstein
-The Souvenir by Louise Steinman
Documentaries mentioned in this episode:
-Crip Camp by Nicole Newham and James LeBrecht
-Shermans’ March by Ross McElwee
Elizabeth Rynecki’s narrative non-fiction memoir, Chasing Portraits: A Great Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy was published by NAL/Penguin Random House in 2016 and received a Kirkus Starred Review. She wrote, produced, and appeared in the documentary film, Chasing Portraits. She’s been featured in the New York Times, been a guest on NPR affiliate stations, and been a speaker at bookstores, libraries, book festivals, and film screenings around the world. Her podcast, That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage is available everywhere you get podcasts. She’s working on a novel inspired by real events. Elizabeth has a BA in Rhetoric from Bates College and an MA in Rhetoric and Communication from UC Davis. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, two sons, and three black cats.
Website: https://www.elizabethrynecki.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erynecki/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/erynecki.bsky.social
Substack: https://substack.com/@elizabethrynecki?utm_source=user-menu
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@erynecki
That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/that-sinking-feeling/id1789191829
Tony Kaplan is an Emmy-nominated documentary director, cinematographer and filmmaker. He has more than 20 years of experience as a creative lead working within the film industry, and he produced and edited “That Sinking Feeling,” a podcast about the unlikely intersection of ADHD and ship salvage. 
 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaplantony
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user210636356
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wraplan
–Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.comSubscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Follow Ronit:https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlankhttps://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social
Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on UnsplashHeadshot photo credit: Sarah Anne PhotographyTheme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

215. Getting to the Heart of Spiritual and Awakened Memoir featuring Sarah Chauncey

Sarah Chauncey joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her many careers in writing, working on a memoir and deciding not to publish, framing the story we want to tell, experiencing ourselves as a part of living system, going deeper and becoming more vulnerable, taking responsibility for our wellbeing and mental health, not seeing oneself as a limited, pursuing inner peace, reading subtextual energy on the page, different forms of storytelling, patterns in memoir, searching for emotional transformation and change, and getting to the heart of spiritual and awakened memoir.
Also in this episode:
-the great mystery
-no longer being a character
-deciding not to be too public
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-Working by Studs Terkel
-The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick
-Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen 
-Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
-The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown
Sarah Chauncey is a veteran writer and developmental editor, as well as the author of P.S. I Love You More Than Tuna, the first gift book for adults grieving the loss of a pet. In the early part of her career, she wrote for VH1, Comedy Central and other TV outlets, as well as entertainment websites and music magazines. Later, she pivoted to storytelling for organizations including NASA, McAfee and Intel. Sarah writes the Resonant Storytelling Substack, which offers guidance on craft and process for creative nonfiction writers. She also writes The Counterintuitive Guide to Life, which helps readers develop mental health resilience by developing self-awareness; and More Than Tuna, which offers support for those grieving the loss of a pet. In recent years, she’s written for Tiny Buddha, Lion’s Roar, Modern Loss, Eckhart Tolle’s website, Jane Friedman’s blog and the Brevity blog. 
 
Connect with Sarah:
Website: https://www.sarahchauncey.com/
Substack: https://substack.com/@sarahchauncey
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahkchauncey/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahchauncey/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.k.chauncey
 
–
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social
 
Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers