Let’s Talk Memoir

Paying Attention to What Intrudes on Us and Confronting Ghosts featuring Sonya Huber

Sonya Huber joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her approach to generating essays, working on many projects at once, writing as exposure therapy, how essays in a collection talk to each other, paying attention to what intrudes on us, living and working in the tangents, an accumulation of questions around a central theme, protecting people, crossing cultures and crossing classes, confronting ghosts, men and danger, being in relationship with writing, and her latest book, Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook
 
Also in this episode:
-writing backward
-questions of class
-narrative arc
 
Listen to Sonya Huber’s first Let’s Talk Memoir episode, #16: https://ronitplank.com/2022/11/15/lets-talk-memoir-season-2-episode-1-ft-sonya-huber/
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Bird by Bird Anne Lamott
Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller
Nola Face by Brooke Champagne
 
Sonya Huber is the author of eight books, including the new essay collection, Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook as well as the writing guide, Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto, and an award-winning essay collection on chronic pain, Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System. Her other books include the Supremely Tiny Acts: A Memoir in a Day, Opa Nobody, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, and The Backwards Research Guide for Writers. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and other outlets. She teaches at Fairfield University and in the Fairfield low-residency MFA program.
Connect with Sonya:
Website: www.sonyahuber.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonyahuber/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonya.huber
Substack: https://sonyahuber.substack.com/
Books available here: https://bookshop.org/lists/sonya-huber-s-books
 
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
Follow Ronit:
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Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Writing Complicated Mother-Daughter Relationships featuring Hyeseung Song

Hyeseung Song joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about being raised by a “beautiful but domineering” mother, breaking free from a legacy of self-worth via external achievements, writing complicated mothers, making the switch from memoir-in-essays to linear memoir, allowing her mother to “speak” for herself, the intersection or mental health, race, and racism, intergenerational trauma and engaging with pain, gaining the distance and time necessary to tell our stories, and her memoir Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl.
Also in this episode:
-self-expansion
-a life of art-making
-forgiving yourself
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick
They Called Us Exceptional by Prachi Gupta
What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
 
Hyeseung Song is a first-generation Korean American writer and painter. She lives and works in New York City. 
 
Connect with Hyeseung:
Website: www.hyeseungsong.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hyeseungs
Twitter: https://x.com/hyeseungs
Get Docile: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Docile/Hyeseung-Song/9781668003664
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

Bonus Episode! Recording and Producing Your Audiobook featuring Justin Billmeier

Justin Billmeier joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about his experience directing and producing audiobooks for a major publishing house, recording equipment costs and considerations for the indie memoirist, audiobook coaching and guidance, and the many components that go into a successful audiobook including story delivery, posture, pacing, script-marking, background noise, enunciation and much more. 
Also in this episode:
-normalizing smaller presses
-the reality about distribution and marketing
-the post production process 
Justin Billmeier is a seasoned audiobook producer with over 15 years of industry experience and the founder of Narrative Waves. He has directed titles for best-selling authors and managed full post-production for numerous acclaimed works. With a background as a Silicon Valley product designer, Justin brings a unique blend of technical and creative expertise to elevate storytelling in every project.
 
Connect with Justin:
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinbillmeier/
Website: https://narrativewaves.com/
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

The Toxicity of Shame featuring Meg Kissinger

Meg Kissinger joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing two siblings to suicide, using her skills as a journalist on her own family, America’s failed mental health system, stripping away prejudice about people with mental illness, the toxicity of shame, being curious and nonjudgmental, growing up with a sense of anxiety and vigilance, writing about people who’ve suffered with love, and her memoir While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence.
 
Also in this episode:
-false starts
-forgiveness
-depicting the dualities and complexities of those we love
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Educated by Tara Westover
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
Never Simple by Liz Scheier
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
 
Meg Kissinger, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and author, will help you see and think about people with mental illness in a new light. Her engaging memoir, “While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence,” has been praised for its incisive reporting, boundless compassion and surprising humor. It was named as an editors choice by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Amazon, Goodreads and Independent Booksellers Association. Audible chose it as the Best of the Year. 
Kissinger spent more than two decades traveling across the country to report on our nation’s failed mental health system, winning dozens of national awards. She is a popular speaker at universities, civic organizations and corporate events. She taught investigative reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and is a trainer for the school’s Dart Center on Trauma and Journalism. 
Kissinger lives in Milwaukee, Wis., along the shores of Lake Michigan, her favorite place to plunge, even on the coldest day in January. 
 
Connect with Meg:
Website: megkissinger.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kissingermeg
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meg.kissinger
X: https://x.com/megkissinger1
Meg’s Book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250793775/whileyouwereout
 
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

What We Can’t Shake featuring Joseph Lezza

Joseph Lezza joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing loved ones, panic disorder and the stigma around anxiety, anger, shame, and the grieving process, discovering the genre he needed while at an MFA program, lyric essay, how story dictates form, what we can’t shake, and his memoir I'm Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss.
 
Also in this episode:
-grief as a shapeshifter
-memoir in essays
-gathering stories
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights by Joan Didion 
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 
Born to Be Public by Greg Mania 
On Looking b Lia Purpura 
The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt 
High Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez 
Brown Neon by Raquel Gutiérrez 
Congratulations! The Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas 
The Groom Will Keep His Name by Matt Ortile 
Also, some great craft books:
Bending Genre by Nicole Walker, Margot Singer
The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate
Crafting the Personal Essay by  Dinty W. Moore
Halls of Fame by John D'Agata
April 24, 2024
Joseph Lezza is a writer in New York, NY with an MFA in creative writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. His debut memoir in essays, I'm Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss (Vine Leaves Press), was a finalist for the 2021 Prize Americana in Prose and was named by Buzzfeed LGBTQ+ and Lambda Literary as a "Most Anticipated 2023 Release." His work has been featured in, among others, Longreads, Occulum, Variant Literature, The Hopper, West Trade Review, and Santa Fe Writers Project. His website is www.josephlezza.com and you can find him on all the socials @lezzdoothis.
Connect with Joseph:
Website: www.josephlezza.com
Social Media: https://linktr.ee/josephlezza
Substack: https://ladyindread.substack.com/
 
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome featuring Deesha Dyer

Deesha Dyer joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her rise in the Obama White House and how imposter syndrome followed her up the ranks, tone policing and microaggressions, how her identity as a Black woman was weaponized in the workplace, engaging her inner child to heal, finding internal freedom and forgiving ourselves, how being yourself takes a while, self-care when writing, honoring our accomplishments and ourselves, and her memoir Undiplomatic: How My Attitude Created the Best Kind of Trouble.
 
Also in this episode:
- hustling for our books 
-recognizing our accomplishments
-the right we all have to speak our truths
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
Gal: A True Story by Ruthie Bolton
Books by bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Tarana Burke
Deesha Dyer is an award-winning community organizer, event strategist, and speaker who specializes in transforming ideas into causes that create tangible change. A 2019 Resident Fellow for the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, her career and mission reflects an unwavering passion for servant leadership and social justice. Her journey began at a community college and led to her role as Social Secretary for the Obama White House. In this role, she planned the historic visit of Pope Francis; State Dinners with leaders from around the world; and performances by Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, and more. Dyer was named one of Marie Claire’s new guard of women changing the world, the Root’s most influential African-Americans, and one of Washington DC's "Women of Excellence." Among her nonprofit enterprises is beGirl.world, which empowers teen girls through global education and travel. Her memoir UNDIPLOMATIC: HOW MY ATTITUDE CREATED THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE is due out April 23, 2024.
Connect with Deesha:
Website: www.deeshadyer.com
Instagram: instagram.com/deedyer267
X: twitter.com/DeeshaDyer
Facebook: facebook.com/deesha34
Get Deesha’s Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/undiplomatic-the-attitude-that-created-the-best-kind-of-trouble-deesha-dyer/20605019
 
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

Honoring Our Stories and Authentic Selves featuring Melanie Brooks

Melanie Brooks joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the misinformation and fear around HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, the role of the evangelical church in her family’s history, the emotional toll of keeping secrets, her work in the growing field of narrative medicine, radical listening, revisiting our heritage and beliefs, leaning into courage, vulnerability and risk, and her memoir A Hard Silence.
 
Also in this episode: 
-self-care
-permission to take our time 
-our integrated selves
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Writing Hard Stories by Melanie Brooks 
 
Melanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in the The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, Creative Nonfiction, and other notable publications. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, two children (when they are home from college), and chocolate Lab.
 
Connect with Melanie:
Website: www.melaniebrooks.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/melanie.brooks.1690
IG: https://www.instagram.com/melaniejmbrookswriter
X: https://x.com/MelanieJMBrooks
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/melanie-brooks-504826121
 
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Grief featuring Lisa Keefauver

Lisa Keefauver MSW and host of the popular podcast Grief is a Sneaky Bitch joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about what happens when we revisit our stories to more deeply understand what has happened in our lives, a look at ambiguous loss, the shoulds and shouldn'ts about grief we tell ourselves that can cause us unnecessary suffering, grief brain, memoir writing for insight and self-compassion, earning reader trust, deep mindfulness, pausing even when we have deadlines, and exercises to calm our nervous system from her new book Grief is a Sneaky Bitch.
 
Also in this episode:
-showing our full selves on the page
-soothing the nervous system
-how we speak to ourselves 
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Fifty-Seven Fridays by Myra Sack
Finding the Words by Colin Campbell
What Looks Like Bravery by Laurel Braitman
When She Comes Back by Ronit Plank
 
Lisa Keefauver, MSW is a grief activist and the founder of Reimagining Grief. Lisa has more than two decades of professional experiences with grief and loss; working as a social worker, narrative therapist, and educator within multiple settings from non-profits to corporations and universities. Lisa's wisdom and understanding of grief is also embodied from her personal losses including the death of her husband in 2011.
 
Lisa's grief advocacy has inspired her to create and host the top-rated podcast, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch; serve as an adjunct professor of Loss and Grief at the University of Texas at Austin; act as an organizational consultant to facilitate grief-smart organizations; write/appear as a thought leader across media platforms. Watch her popular TEDx Talk, Why Knowing More About Grief Can Make it Suck Less. You can pre-order her heavily anticipated book, Grief Is A Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss now. It arrives in bookstores June 4, 2024.
 
Connect with Lisa:
Website: www.lisakeefauver.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisakeefauvermsw/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakeefauvermsw/
Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grief-is-a-sneaky-bitch/id1474558908
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPQt3ARzpzeRl5ckN1k-h-g
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lisakeefauvermsw
Get the book on Bookshop
Get the book on Amazon
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

Holding Space to Write the Truth of Our Lives featuring Linda Joy Myers

Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers and memoir coach joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about helping memoirists become their own good editors, keeping both the vertical and linear in mind when writing our stories, the importance of breaks when working on traumatic material, how writing puts our experience in perspective, finding a writing cohort, leaving bad writing groups, what we remember vs. what really happened, why truth is complicated, and the evolution of memoir.
 
Also in this episode:
-her latest class offerings
-fending off the inner critic
-the promise we make to the reader
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
-Bluets by Maggie Nelson
-In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
-You Could Make this Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
-Wild by Cheryl Strayed
-Books by Abigail Thomas
 
Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, is the author of award-winning memoirs Don't Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains, and two books on craft The Power of Memoir, & Journey of Memoir. She co-authored Breaking Ground on Your Memoir and Magic of Memoir & co-teaches Write Your Memoir in Six Months with Brooke Warner. A memoir coach for 30 years, she helps writers find their voice and get their story into the world. Linda Joy’s prize-winning first novel, The Forger of Marseille was released in 2023.
 
Connect with Linda:
https://www.namw.org/
http://lindajoymyersauthor.com
https://www.facebook.com/linda.j.myers
https://www.instagram.com/lindajoymyersauthor/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindajoy/
Get Linda’s 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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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

Reclaiming Our Voice, Story, and Agency featuring Hannah Sward

Hannah Sward joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how she never wanted to be a writer let alone write a memoir, attachment theory and being abandoned by her mother, creating boundaries with loved ones, compassion for the children we were, her experience writing about working in the sex trade and being addicted to crystal meth, when acceptance is a form of forgiveness, feeling overwhelmed by feedback, how structure can be confounding, reclaiming our voice, story, and agency, creating a stark narrative, and her memoir Strip.
 
Also in this episode:
-comparing ourselves to other writers
-writing every day 
-feeling free to write the sh*ttiest sh*t
-trusting ourselves
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg 
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
 
Hannah Sward, daughter of the late poet Robert Sward, is the IAN awarding-winning author of Strip: A Memoir. Strip, Swards first book, has received the attention of authors such as Nobel Prize winner, J.M. Coetzee, Melissa Broder, and NYT Bestselling novelist Caroline Leavitt who called Sward, “One of the most moving and honest memoir writers. So eloquent, so brave.”  Sward has appeared on NBC CA Live, C-SPAN BookTV, dozens of podcasts, panels, and in magazines and newspapers such as the LA Times and Recovery Today. Sward lives in Los Angeles where she coaches writers and is working on her next book. To find out more hannahsward.com
Connect with Hannah:
Website: https://www.hannahsward.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/hannahswardauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannahswardauthor
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@hannahswardauthor
Bookshop.org:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/strip-a-memoir-hannah-sward/18101649?ean=9781948954679
Amazon: https://a.co/d/dLQD8rP
—
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
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
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Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers