Let’s Talk Memoir

22. Writing a Memoir About The Mother Who Betrayed You featuring Author Laura Davis

Celebrated author and memoir teacher Laura Davis joins Let’sTalk Memoir for a special holiday episode for a conversation about writing her memoir The Burning Light of Two Stars: A Mother-Daughter Story and how she reconciled with the mother who betrayed her and came to care for her in her final days. In this episode Laura also shares her tips for writing about traumatic experiences, where the boundaries are when writing about family experiences, and what all memoir writing needs.  
 
Laura Davis is the author of The Burning Light of Two Stars, the riveting memoir about her tumultuous yet loving relationship with her mother, and six other non-fiction books, including The Courage to Heal, Allies in Healing, I Thought We‘d Never Speak Again, and Becoming the Parent You Want to Be. Her groundbreaking books have been translated into 11 languages and sold 1.8 million copies. In addition to writing books that inspire and change people’s lives, the work of Laura’s heart is to teach. For more than twenty years, she’s helped people find their voices, tell their stories, and hone their craft. Laura loves creating supportive, intimate writing communities online, in person, and internationally. You can learn about Laura’s books and workshops, read the first five chapters of her memoir, and receive a free ebook: Writing Through Courage: A 30-Day Practice at www.lauradavis.net. 
 
For Let’s Talk Memoir Listeners, you can also read the opening chapters for free here: http://www.lauradavis.net/chapters
Direct links to buy The Burning Light of Two Stars:
Audiobook version of The Burning Light of Two Stars (Laura is the narrator):
On Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Burning-Light-of-Two-Stars-Audiobook/B09G8WJQP7
And on Libro.fm for independent stores: https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781950144471
 
Independent Bookstores:
Get Signed Copies Through Bookshop Santa Cruz: https://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/burning-light-two-stars-get-it-signed
Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/books/the-burning-light-of-two-stars-a-mother-daughter-story-9781954854161/9781954854161
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1954854161
Want to Order Internationally with Free Worldwide Delivery? 
https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Burning-Light-of-Two-Stars-Laura-Davis/9781954854161
 
Attention Writers:
If you’re a writer or want to use writing as a tool for healing or self-discovery, you can learn about Laura’s online writing workshops and in-person domestic and international retreats here: www.lauradavis.net 
And if you want to go on a magical creative vacation to Tuscany with Laura in June of 2022, check out some serious eye candy here!
 
Connect with Laura Davis:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewritersjourney
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurasaridavis/
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Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
 
Connect with Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
 
Background photo: Canva
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers
 

21. Inside Passage: The Waterfield Sisters on Their Fractured Childhood and the Redemptive Power of Memoir and Music featuring Keema Waterfield and Tekla Waterfield

Keema and Tekla Waterfield join Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about being raised by a young single mother in Southeast Alaska after their father left the family. With very little money but a passion for music and art, their mother moved them frequently in pursuit of her education, gigs, and new relationships. As the sisters grew, art and their at-times traumatic childhood led each of the sisters on different paths. Keema wrote Inside Passage, a memoir about her nomadic Alaskan childhood, the toll her upbringing took on her, and the effect it had on her relationship with her mother. Tekla became a singer-songwriter whose most recent release, "New Skies" landed in the NACC Top 30 Folk Album Charts in October of 2021. In this special holiday episode they share their perspective on their childhood, how each of them grappled with their father leaving, and why art has always been central in their lives.
 
Keema Waterfield
Keema Waterfield is the author of Inside Passage, a nomadic childhood memoir set along the wild coast of Southeast Alaska. Other work has appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, Brevity, Redivider, and others. She resides in Missoula, Montana, with her husband, two children, a bunch of extra instruments she doesn’t know how to play, and a revolving cast of quirky animals. She lives and writes on Séliš and Qlispé land. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @keemasaurusrex 
 
Website:
https://keemawaterfield.com
Link to Keema’s memoir Inside Passage: https://bookshop.org/books/inside-passage-a-memoir/9781950584567
 
Ronit’s review of Inside Passage: https://therumpus.net/2021/08/inside-passage-by-keema-waterfield/
 
Tekla Waterfield:
2020 & 2021 Doe Bay Resort & Retreat Artist Resident recipient, 2019 Jack Straw Cultural Center recording grant recipient, and 2018 Allied Arts Listen Up! Women in Music grant recipient, Alaskan born Seattle based singer/songwriter Tekla Waterfield incorporates elements of folk, country, roots, rock and soul creating a wide-ranging sound unified by dynamic vocals, compelling stage presence and point-of-view storytelling. Waterfield's music has been heard on radio stations throughout the US, on NPR's World Cafe, in the UK, Scotland, Wales, Australia, England & Korea and has been described as "poignant and emotionally soaring" by No Depression Magazine. Waterfield's most recent release, "New Skies" landed in the NACC Top 30 Folk Album Charts in October of 2021.
Website: www.teklawaterfield.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teklawaterfieldmusic/
 
--
Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
 
Connect with Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
 
Background photo: Canva
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

20. No Job for a Man featuring John Ross Bowie

John Ross Bowie joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about working in Hollywood, mental health, the patterns we discover in our lives and write about, grappling with shame, coming to terms with who his father really was, and his new memoir No Job for a Man.
 
Also in this episode:
-distress in the body
-New York City in the 80s
-What it’ like to voice your loved ones for an audiobook
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Life’s Work by David Milch
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggars 
Darkness Visible by William Styron
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon
 
John Ross Bowie is perhaps best known for playing recurring villain and fan favorite Barry Kripke on the international hit television show The Big Bang Theory. He also recently co-starred as Minnie Driver’s husband, Jimmy DiMeo, on ABC’s “Speechless.” John has been appeared on the television shows Veep, Fresh off the Boat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Brooklyn 99, CSI, and Glee, among many others, and in movies such as Road Trip, The Heat, He’s Just Not That Into You, The Santa Clause 3, Jumanji: The Next Level, and the cult hit What The Bleep Do We Know? Prior to his acting career, John was a contributing writer for the New York Press and has since written and developed television scripts at Fox, CBS, and Amazon. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Jamie Denbo and their two children.
 
Connect with John Ross Bowie:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnrossbowie/
Website: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/No-Job-for-a-Man/John-Ross-Bowie/9781639362462
--
Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
 
Connect with Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
 
Background photo: Canva
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

19. Writing About Family Secrets featuring Isidra Mencos

Isidra Mencos joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about setting her coming-of-age memoir against the backdrop of Spain’s cultural upheaval after the death of Franco, balancing personal narrative with history and research, writing about sex, the destructive power of shame, and the decision to write about family secrets in her new memoir Promenade of Desire.
 
Also in this episode:
-What to do about gaps in our memory when writing memoir
-Trusting our instincts
-Deciding what and what not to share
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
Lit by Mary Karr
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Jesusland by Julia Scheeres
Dry by Augusten Burroughs
Girlhood by Melissa Febos
the work of Melissa Febos
the work of David Sedaris
 
Isidra Mencos was born and raised in Barcelona. She spent her twenties experimenting with the new freedoms afforded by the end of Franco’s dictatorship in Spain while immersing herself in books and dancing. She freelanced for prestigious publishing houses, traveled the world as a tour leader, and worked for the Olympic Committee. In 1992 she moved to the US to earn a Ph.D. in Spanish and Latin American contemporary literature at UC Berkeley, where she taught for twelve years. She also developed her own business as a writer and editor for Spanish-speaking media. After a 10-year stint in corporate America, managing teams in several countries, she quit her job in 2016 to dedicate herself to writing. Since then, her essays have been widely published in literary journals and general interest magazines, such as Chicago Quarterly Review, Front Porch Journal, The Huffington Post, Wisdom Well, and WIRED. One was listed as Notable in the Best American Essays Anthology. Today Isidra lives in Northern California with her husband and son.
 
Connect with Isidra:
Website: https://isidramencos.com
Personal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/isidra.mencos
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IsidraMencosAuthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isidramencos/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/isidramencos
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isidramencos/
 
--
Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
 
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
 
Connect with Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
 
Background photo: Canva
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

18. Crafting a Braided Memoir featuring Jamie Gehring

Jamie Gehring joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her braided memoir Madman in the Woods which details her and her family’s experience living next to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, how she incorporated and structured research, interviews, and her own memories, the challenge of organizing so much information, and why writers need to follow their instincts.
 
Also in this episode:
-Not losing the reader
-Getting it all onto the page
-Intimate true crime as a genre
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
ShadowMan: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of the FBI by Ron Franscell
When She Comes Back by Ronit Plank
Bookends by Zibby Owens
Inside Passage by Keema Watrfield
The Babysitter: My Summers with Serial Killer by Liza Rodman and Jennifer Jordan
Knocked Down by Aileen Weintraub
Educated by Tara Westover
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story by Anne Rule
The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich 
You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie
 
Jamie Gehring is a Montana native who grew up sharing a backyard with Ted Kaczynski, the man widely known as the Unabomber. She was featured in Netflix’s Unabomber—In His Own Words where she discussed her family’s role in Ted’s capture.
 
Connect with Jamie:
Website: www.jamiegehring.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiegehringauthor/
Books: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781635768169
--
Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
Background photo: Canva
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

17. The Role of the Reflective Narrator featuring Lily Dunn

Lily Dunn joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the impact her father leaving to follow the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had on her childhood, when she knew it was time to write her memoir Sins of the Father, stepping into her role as reflective narrator, creating tension, family members in our work, and understanding as a means to healing.
 
Also in this episode:
-writing to find answers
-our early experiences as shadows in our lives
-staying true to your purpose 
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Educated by Tara Westover
Whip Smart by Meliss Febos
Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest
Busy Being Free by Emma Forrst
 
Lily Dunn writes fiction and nonfiction. Her literary memoir, Sins of My Father: A Daughter, A Cult, A Wild Unravelling is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (March 2022), and her novel, Shadowing the Sun, by Portobello Books (2007). She has personal essays in Granta, Litro, Hinterland, MIRonline and The Real Story, and is a regular writer for Aeon magazine. She is co-editor of A Wild and Precious Life: Recovery Anthology, with Zoe Gilbert (Unbound 2021). She teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University in the UK and co-runs London Lit Lab. 
 
Connect with Lily:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lilydunnwriter
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilydunnwriting/
Website: lilydunn.co.uk
London Lit Lab: londonlitlab.co.uk
UK Book Link: https://smarturl.it/SinsOfMyFatherHB
US Book Link: https://geni.us/SinsOfMyFatherUS
--
Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
Background photo: Canva Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne
Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers
 

16. Voice First featuring Sonya Huber

Sonya Huber joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about structure and time in memoir, the challenge of getting to the core of who we are and facing ourselves on the page, how her perspective on “voice” has changed over time and why that drove her to write her new book Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto.
 
Also in this episode:
-the power of shame to silence us
-how “authentic” voice might not mean what we think
-a writing exercise to help jumpstart your work
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Mezzanine by Nicholas Baker
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Jjames Agee
Writers: Andrew Monson and Peter Elbow
 
Sonya Huber is the author of seven books, including the new guide, Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto, and the award-winning essay collection on chronic pain, Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System. Her other books include 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, and other outlets. She teaches at Fairfield University and in the Fairfield low-residency MFA program.
Connect with Sonya:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sonyahuber
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonya.huber/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonyahuber/
Website: www.sonyahuber.com
Sonya's books: https://bookshop.org/lists/sonya-huber-s-books
--
Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
Background photo: Canva Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Season 2 launching soon!

Season 2 of Let’s Talk Memoir is almost here!
I’m incredibly excited to bring you all of the interviews I’ve been working on. These episodes cover voice, sharing family secrets, braided memoir, nonlinear memoir, what it’s like to move from other creative disciplines to memoir, advocating for our work, and lots more. 
Season 2 of Let’s Talk Memoir will launch November 15th, that’s Tuesday, November 15th and new episodes will come out weekly.
If you have questions about memoir or about how memoirists craft their narratives, or anything at all that you would like covered on the show, there’s still time to send me a note with your question or topic suggestion. 
You can find me on Instagram, Twitter,  LinkedIn, and Facebook @RonitPlank and you can also message me on my website ronitplank.com.
It’s been a lot of fun to read your reviews and messages about season 1 and makes creating this podcast that much more rewarding. If you haven’t yet left a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify it’s not too late. Every review helps others find the show.
And if you know a writer or a memoir aficionado who would appreciate this podcast, please share it. Podcasts really depend on word of mouth and listener enthusiasm.
Thank you so much for being here and I just can’t wait to drop episode one on Tuesday, November 15th!
 
 
Ronit is a teacher and speaker whose essays, creative nonfiction, and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2023. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
Follow Ronit:https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
Background photo: CanvaHeadshot photo credit: Sarah Anne PhotographyTheme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

15. Memory, Truth, and Memoir featuring Dr. Virginia Campbell

Dr. Ginger Campbell joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the nature of memory and how that affects memoir writing, the phenomenon of false memories, cognitive dissonance, the slipperiness of what we can remember and how each time we do we actually recreate the memory, and why this is all good news for memoirists.
Dr. Ginger Campbell started podcasting in 2006 and was recently inducted into the Podcast Hall of Fame. Her shows include Brain Science, Books and Ideas, and Graying Rainbows: Coming Out LGBT+ Later in Life. Her most well-known show Brain Science explores how recent discoveries in neuroscience are unraveling the mystery of how our brain makes us human.
Dr. Campbell is also the author of Are You Sure? The Unconscious Origins of Certainty and she practices Palliative Medicine in Alabama.
 
Main links:
https://virginiacampbellmd.com
https://brainsciencepodcast.com
@docartemis on most social media
 
-Visit the Let's Talk Memoir Merch store: https://www.zazzle.com/store/letstalkmemoir
--
Ronit’s essays and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and The Body Myth.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
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
 

14. The Divided Self in Memoir featuring Phillip Lopate

Phillip Lopate, a central figure in the revival of the American essay joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the integral role the divided self plays in memoir, striking the balance between telling and showing, how knowing your own flaws and defects helps build trust with the reader, why the intelligent narrator must be present from page one, and why having an interesting take on your story is as if not more important than the story itself.
 
Also in this episode:
-why memoirs aren’t for getting even
-turning yourself into a character
-narcissistic parents in memoir
Memoirs mentioned in this episode:
Borrowed Finery by Paula Fox
Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy
My Father Myself by J.R. Ackerly
My Dog Tulip by J.R. Ackerly
 
Phillip Lopate is a central figure in the revival of the American essay, both through his ubiquitous edited anthology, Art of the Personal Essay, and his own essay collections, Bachelorhood, Against Joie de Vivre, Portrait of My Body and Portrait Inside My Head.  He is also the author of such book-length nonfiction works as To Show and to Tell, Being with Children, Waterfront, Notes on Sontag, Rudy Burckhardt: Photographer and A Mother’s Tale.  Additionally, he has written books of fiction (Confessions of Summer, The Rug Merchant, Two Marriages) and poetry (At the End of the Day).  Finally, he has edited other anthologies (Writing New York and American Movie Critics), and is currently completing a three-volume historical anthology of the American essay.  A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a winner of Guggenheim, New York Public Library and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, he is on the faculty of Columbia University’s Graduate Writing Program, School of the Arts. 
https://philliplopate.com
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Ronit’s essays and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and The Body Myth.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
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