Let’s Talk Memoir

37. Sharing A Dangerous Story featuring Erika Bornman

Erika Bornman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her experience escaping from KwaSizabantu and her participation in News24’s exposé alleging this strict Christian mission is a cult is a cult riddled with abuse, the compassion she found writing about loved ones with whom she has longstanding conflict, how she approached crafting emotionally difficult passages, the legal advice she got about including controversial material in her memoir Mission of Malice, and why our voice matters.
 
Also in this episode: 
-the importance of therapy for memoirists
-working with hard deadlines
-building empathy through stories
 
Memoirs mentioned in this episode:
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Choice by Dr Edith Eger
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
The Witness Wore Red by Rebecca Musser
Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs and Maia Szalavitz
Wholly Unravelled by Keele Burgin
Unfollow by Meghan Phelps-Roper
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 
Always Another Country by Sisonke Msimang
Boy on the Run by Welcome Mandla Lishivha
Killing Karoline by Sara-Jayne King
Mad Bad Love by Sara-Jayne Makwala King
 
Erika Bornman has carved a career for herself in magazine publishing as a writer and editor, despite her lack of formal training. Her memoir is her first book and an important element in her quest to make the world a safer place for children. She lives in Cape Town, South Africa, with her two cats.
About her memoir Mission of Malice:
When Erika Bornman was nine years old, her family joined, and ultimately moved to, KwaSizabantu, a Christian mission in South Africa – a place touted as a nirvana, founded on egalitarian values. But something sinister lurks below the veneer of piousness here.
Life at KwaSizabantu is hard. Christianity is used to justify harsh punishments and congregants are forced to repent for their sins. Threats of physical violence ensure adherence to stringent rules. Parents are pitted against children. Friendships are discouraged. Isolated and alone, Erika lives in constant fear of eternal damnation.
At 17, her grooming at the hands of a senior mission counsellor begins. For the next five years, KwaSizabantu wages emotional, psychological and sexual warfare on her, until, finally, she manages to break free and walk away at the age of 21.
Escaping a restrictive religious community is difficult, but rehabilitation into ‘normal’ life after a decade of ritual humiliation, brainwashing and abuse is much more painful, as Erika soon discovers. She cannot ignore her knowledge of the grievous human-rights abuses being committed at KwaSizabantu, and so she embarks on a quest to expose the atrocities. With her help, News24 launches a seven-month investigation, culminating in a podcast that will go on to win the internationally renowned One World Media Award for Radio and Podcast in 2021.
In Mission of Malice: My Exodus from KwaSizabantu, Erika chronicles her journey from a fearful young girl to a fierce activist determined to do whatever it takes to save future generations and find personal redemption and self-acceptance.
 
Connect with Erika:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ebee40
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erikabornman/
Website: www.erikabornman.com
Get Erika’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Mission-Malice-My-exodus-KwaSizabantu-ebook/dp/B09B45VMP6
 
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
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

36. Writing What You Have To featuring Sandi Wisenberg

Sandi Wisenberg joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about finding home, the structure our books need, her career as a journalist, negotiating a legacy of woman shame and Jewish shame, writing what you have to, and her new collection of memoiristic essays, The Wandering Womb.
-Visit the Let's Talk Memoir Merch store: https://www.zazzle.com/store/letstalkmemoir
 
Also in this episode:
-looking for home
-not wrapping our writing up too neatly
-a closer look at “the wandering Jew” trope
 
Further reading about The Wandering Jew trope from rootsmetals.com:
https://www.rootsmetals.com/blogs/news/the-wandering-jew-trope
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood
The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy
A Chorus of Stones by Susan Griffin
Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin
Books by Phillip Lopate
 
S.L. Wisenberg is the author of the forthcoming book, The Wandering Womb: Essays in Search of Home, winner of the Juniper Prize in creative nonfiction. It will be published March 31, 2023, by the University of Massachusetts Press. She's also the author of a short-story collection, The Sweetheart Is In; an essay collection, Holocaust Girls: History, Memory, & Other Obsessions; and a nonfiction chronicle, The Adventures of Cancer Bitch. She is a fourth-generation native Texan who lives in Chicago and edits Another Chicago Magazine. She has an MFA in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop and a BSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She was a feature writer for the Miami Herald and has published prose and poetry in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Narrative, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Colorado Review, and many other places. Her anthologized work is in Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction, Creating Nonfiction: A Guide and Anthology, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, Life is Short--Art is Shorter, and a number of other books. For ten years she was co-director of Northwestern's then-MA/MFA in Creative Writing program and was a graduate faculty recipient of a Distinguished Teacher Award. She has been the literary editor of TriQuarterly, the creative nonfiction editor of Another Chicago Magazine. and is now the editor of ACM. She's received a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. She was the Coal Royalty Chair for a semester at the University of Alabama, teaching in the MFA program. Wisenberg has read her work and lectured at many universities and colleges, including Brown, Creighton, Minnesota State, Texas A&M, University of Tampa, Ripon, and Lafayette. Besides Northwestern, she has taught at DePaul, Roosevelt, Western Michigan, North Park University, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is working on a collection of short stories that are pre- and post-Holocaust and have a connection to old movies and Houston. One of these was runner-up in Narrative Magazine's Fall 2021 contest, and another won Narrative's Spring 22 contest. 
 
Connect with Sandi:
https://www.facebook.com/sandi.wisenberg
Sandi Wisenberg @SLWisenberg
slwisenberg.com
Sandi’s first three books: https://bookshop.org/books?keywords=wisenberg
Sandi’s forthcoming book:  https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781625347350 or Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wandering-womb-s-l-wisenberg/1142599024?ean=9781625347350
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
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

35. From Blog to Book featuring Stacey Freeman

Stacey Freeman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her husband’s infidelity became the impetus for her writing career, single parenthood and the shock of dating after divorce, getting comfortable sharing after a lifetime of keeping the personal under wraps, cutting her manuscript by half, and the blog that became her memoir I Bought My Husband’s Mistress Lingerie. 
 
Also in this episode:
-making a living from writing
-finding peace with an ex
-pivoting careers after children
 
Memoirs mentioned in this episode:
Maid by Stephanie Land
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy
If I Knew Then by Amy Fisher
Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver
No One Asked For This by Cazzie David
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
Stacey Freeman is a writer and journalist and the founder of Write On Track LLC, a full-service consultancy dedicated to providing high-quality content and strategy to individuals and businesses. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily (published by The Washington Post), Forbes, Entrepreneur, MarketWatch, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day, Town & Country, InStyle, PBS’ Next Avenue, AARP, SheKnows, Yahoo!, MSN, HuffPost, POPSUGAR, Your Teen, Grown & Flown, Scary Mommy, CafeMom, MariaShriver.com, and dozens of other well-known platforms worldwide. She lives in New Jersey with her three children.
 
Connect with Stacey:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/staceyfreemanwriter/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/staceyfreemanwriter/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StaceyFreemanJD
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoHeCheated
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceyfreemanwriter/
Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22449933.Stacey_Freeman
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/staceyfreemanwriter/
Website: staceyfreeman.com
Website: writeontrackllc.com
Get her book: https://www.amazon.com/Bought-My-Husbands-Mistress-Lingerie/dp/1956692401/ref=sr_1_2?crid=G644U5E8GTU7&keywords=stacey+freeman&qid=1666283013&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIxLjQ2IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=stacey+freeman%2Caps%2C164&sr=8-2
 
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
 
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

34. Excavating Cultural Identity in Memoir featuring Jasmin Faulk-Dickerson

Jasmin Faulk-Dickerson joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up in Saudi Arabia under an oppressive regime, what being a woman of color does and doesn’t mean to her, invisible identities, writing about ethnicity, race, and culture, her advocacy work, and how she navigated the socio-political in her memoir The Last Sandstorm.
 
Also in this episode:
-Recognizing our privilege as we write
-Knowing what to leave out of our manuscripts 
-How hyper liberalism has impacted her
 
Memoirs mentioned in this episode:
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Home by Julie Andrews
 
Jasmin is a social & behavioral researcher, writer, speaker, and cultural identity advocate. She draws motivation from her personal story as well as her education to advocate and promote social justice and understanding. Born in the Middle East to an Italian mother and Arabian father, she immigrated to the United States in 1999 and pursued her education in Wyoming and Washington State in writing, equity, diversity, and leadership.
Jasmin’s areas of expertise are: DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion), ethical leadership, cultural diversity and social identity, women’s issues, and oppression. 
Jasmin is also versed in issues regarding: Arab women, Arab culture, social/cultural oppression, religious oppression, and The Middle East, 
In her memoir, The Last Sandstorm, Jasmin highlights the colorful and challenging experiences of her upbringing in Saudi Arabia, which led to her harrowing escape in her 20s. 
Jasmin is also the host of the podcast “I Want You To Meet”, where she engages with artists and activists in inspiring and educational conversations. She also guest lectures and guest speaks at events, colleges, and retreats and works at The Evergreen State College in Washington State.
 
Connect with Jasmin:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasmin.faulk.dickerson/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100082512111864&ref=page_internal
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasmin-faulk-dickerson-mpa-00324a117/
Website: https://www.jasminfaulkdickerson.com/
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
 
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

33. Finding the Themes in Your Story featuring Debbie Weiss

Debbie Weiss joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about widowhood and capturing grief and loneliness in ways that keep readers invested, starting scenes in the middle, finding themes in your story, how her blog was a stepping stone to watching her writing take off, and her new memoir Available As Is.
 
Also in this episode:
-writing about the character-you from the narrator-you lens 
-the online dating scene after 50
-structuring a memoir with lots of material
 
Books Mentioned in this episode:
Consider the Oyster by M. F. K.  Fisher
The Gastronomical Me by M.F.K. Fisher
Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin
Shimmering Images: A Handy Little Guide to Writing Memoir by Lisa Dale Norton
Educated by Tara Westover
 
Debbie Weiss is a former attorney who earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Saint Mary’s College of California in 2020. A native of the Bay Area, she turned to writing after George, her husband and partner of more than three decades, died of cancer in April 2013, and she found herself single and living alone for the first time in her life. Weiss’s essays have been published in The New York Times's “Modern Love” column, HuffPost, Woman’s Day, Good Housekeeping, Elle Décor, and Reader’s Digest, among other publications. She lives in Benicia, CA with het second life partner, Randal.
 
Connect with Debi:
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/debbieweissauthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debbie_weiss_author/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DWeissWriter
Website: https://thehungoverwidow.com/
Purchase “Available As Is”:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1324017.Debbie_Weiss
Amazon: 
https://www.amazon.com/Available-As-Midlife-Widows-Search/dp/164742237X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JLADG9KGH13C&keywords=available+as+is+debbie+weiss&qid=1665773224&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjkxIiwicXNhIjoiMC4zNiIsInFzcCI6IjAuNTEifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=available+as+is%2Caps%2C255&sr=8-1
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
 
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

32. The Intersection of Race, Privilege, and Addiction in Memoir featuring Laura Cathcart Robbins

Laura Cathcart Robbins joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing Stash, her new memoir that delves into addiction, privilege, and race, what self-care looked like for her while she tackled traumatic material, why she had to let go of controlling the narrative to better serve her story, and depicting the physical impact of addiction on the page.
 
Also in this episode:
-Laura’s wildly popular podcast The Only One in the Room
-the importance of journals
-sharing a manuscript with family and exes
 
Memoirs mentioned in this episode:
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamont
Dry by Augustus Burrows
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
California Soul by Keith Corbin
Educated by Tara Westover
 
Laura Cathcart Robbin is the host of the popular podcast, The Only One In The Room, and author of the forthcoming Atria/Simon & Schuster memoir, STASH (due out in spring of 2023). She has been active for many years as a speaker and school trustee and is credited for creating The Buckley School’s nationally recognized committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice. Her recent articles in Huffpo and The Temper on the subjects of race, recovery, and divorce have garnered her worldwide acclaim. She is a LA Moth StorySlam winner and currently sits on the advisory boards of the San Diego Writer’s Festival and the Outliers HQ podcast Festival. Find out more about her on her website, or you can look for her on Facebook, on Instagram, and follow her on Twitter.
 
Connect with Laura: 
Laura's Podcast: https://theonlyonepod.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHRtdMgfXBbfvb6YkJr2qQw
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theonlyoneintheroom/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theonlyoneintheroom
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheOnlyOnePodc1
Laura's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauracathcartrobbins/
Huffpost Profile: https://www.huffpost.com/author/laura-cathcart-robbins
Laura's Website: http://www.lauracathcartrobbins.com/
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
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

31. Language, Lyricism, and Sound featuring Suzanne Roberts

Suzanne Roberts joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the difficulty of being in a human body - especially a woman’s, the male gaze, deciding how to approach our work, writing about loss, grief, death, and desire, reading widely and deeply, being an employee to our art, and Animal Bodies, her memoir made of lyrical essays, narrative pieces, and prose poems.
 
Also in this episode:
-when the body becomes political
-how poetry has informed her work
-a tool to get yourself to write even material that you most fear sharing 
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith
Guidebook to Relative Strangers by Camille Dungy 
Soil: A Black Mother’s Garden by Camille Dungy
What You Have Heard is True by Carolyn Forché
The Man Who Could Move Clouds by Ingrid Rojas Contreras 
Lying by Lauren Slater
Constellations: Reflections from Life by Sinead Gleeson
Drawing Breath by Gayle Brandeis
Burnt: A Memoir of Fighting Fire by Clare Frank 
The Abacus of Loss by Sholeh Wolpé
Trespass by Amy Irvine
Trailed by Kathryn Miles
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
 
Suzanne Roberts is the author of the award-winning essay collection Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties (March 2022),​ the award-winning travel memoir in essays Bad Tourist: Misadventures in Love and Travel (2020), and the memoir Almost Somewhere: Twenty-Eight Days on the John Muir Trail (Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award), as well as four books of poems. Named "The Next Great Travel Writer" by National Geographic's Traveler, Suzanne's work has been listed as notable in Best American Essays and included in The Best Women's Travel Writing. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, The Normal School, River Teeth, and elsewhere. She holds a doctorate in literature and the environment from the University of Nevada-Reno, teaches in the low residency MFA program in creative writing at UNR-Tahoe, and splits her time between South Lake Tahoe, California and an old green van named Shrek.
 
Connect with Suzanne: 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzanneroberts28/?hl=en
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/suzanne.roberts.798
Website: https://www.suzanneroberts.net/
Animal Bodies: https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496231024/#:~:text=About%20the%20Book&text=In%20Animal%20Bodies%20Suzanne%20Roberts,taboo%20desires%20and%20our%20grief.
 
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
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

30. The Magic of Dialogue featuring Felicia Thai Heath

Felicia Thai Heath joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up on the run to help keep her father, a notorious Vietnamese kingpin, safe from capture, the power of dialogue to tell our stories, beginning scenes in the middle, orienting the reader in time and space, and making the decision to share the family history she once tried to hide.
Also in this episode:
-Crafting interludes to give readers a break
-Writing the most emotional scenes first
-Depicting fraught relationships
Books mentioned in this episode:
On Writing by Stephen King
The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
Felicia Heath is a triple-board-certified critical care anesthesiologist, blogger, and debut author. She spent a month alone in a studio in the heart of Philadelphia to write the original manuscript of Spirit of a Hummingbird: Memories from a Childhood on the Run, just seventy-two hours after delivering her third child. This left her husband with their two-year-old, one-year-old, and newborn as she drank pinot noir and wrote for days on end. All of it was his idea, which is exactly why she tattooed his name across her shoulder and eloped with him on a South African safari six years ago. Felicia now lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and four children. She practices medicine as she anticipates a shift in the universe with the release of her memoir.
 
Connect with Felicia:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/felicia.heath.161
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latinforhappiness_md/
Website: https://www.mixedfeelingsmama.com
Find Spirit of a Hummingbird on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Hummingbird-Memories-Childhood-Run/dp/1632995700 
-- 
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
 
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

29. Co-Authoring a Memoir featuring Vincent Paterson and Amy Tofte

Happy Valentine’s Day! In honor of artistic partnership, Vincent Paterson and Amy Tofte join Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation on their experience collaborating on their new book Icons and Instincts, Vincent’s experience working with Madonna, Robin Williams, and other stars, the 6-step process Amy relied on during the writing process, the fight against artistic erasure, and allowing manuscripts to tell us what they need to be.
Also in this episode:
-How all of what we do as artists informs our creativity
-Why time alone is essential 
-Separating artists from their behavior
Books mentioned in this episode: 
On Writing by Stephen King
 
Vincent Paterson is a world-renowned director and choreographer in film, theatre, Broadway, concert tours, opera, television, music videos and commercials. His iconic works include Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal and the famous “lean” as well as Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour. He directed the opera Manon with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon, Cirque de Soleil’s VIVA! ELVIS and Berlin's first original production of CABARET—the longest running play in Berlin's history. Film choreographies include The Birdcage, Dancer in the Dark, Evita and Hook. He resides in California with his husband, Rene Lamontagne.
 
Amy Tofte is an award-winning writer and storyteller. She won a prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2015. She has been a regular contributor to the award-winning LA STAGE Times and other online publications with more than 100 feature articles profiling Emmy winners, Oscar- and Pulitzer-nominated writers as well as nationally recognized theater artists. Tofte’s critically acclaimed stage plays have been produced throughout the U.S., the U.K., Australia and at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. She lives in Los Angeles.
 
Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Icons-Instincts-Choreographing-Directing-Entertainments/dp/1644282631/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1L41A3TOO0J68&keywords=Vincent+paterson&qid=1659550841&sprefix=vincent+paterson%2Caps%2C245&sr=8-1
Connect with Vincent:
Website: http://www.vincentpaterson.com/www.vincentpaterson.com/HOME.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vincent.paterson.5
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vlpla/
 
Connect with Amy:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-tofte-1712334/
--
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
 
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
 
 

28. Resisting Self-Pity in Memoir featuring Maria Giura

Maria Giura joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about which stories define us, avoiding the self-pity trap, the importance of allowing the reader to make decisions about the characters in our memoir for themselves, how we frame childhood and family dynamics, writing about the very early versions of ourselves after we’ve changed so much, and what challenges she faced writing Celibate in which she explores her relationship with the priest she fell in love with and how that experience helped her discover the life she wanted to live.
Also in this episode:
-shutting out the voices that tell you not to share your story
-gaining the perspective our narratives need
-how The Church and her faith guide her 
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard
Limbo by A. Manette Ansay
The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo
 
Maria Giura is the author of Celibate: A Memoir, which won a First Place Independent Press Award, and What My Father Taught Me, which was a Paterson Poetry Book Prize finalist. Her writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in several journals including New York Quarterly, Prime Number, Vita Poetica, Presence, Italian Americana, Lips, and Tiferet. An Academy of American Poets winner, Giura has taught writing at multiple universities including Binghamton University where she received her PhD in English. She currently teaches memoir workshops for Casa Belvedere Cultural Foundation. Follow her on Instagram @marigiurawrites, on Fb and at mariagiura.com
 
Connect with Maria:
Website: mariagiura.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariagiurawrites/
Facebook:: facebook.com/maria.giura.3975/
Courses: 
casa-belvedere.org/product/virtual-writing-workshop-writing-your-memories-gifts-given-and-received/
Purchase Maria’s book, Celibate:
amazon.com/gp/product/1627202145?pf_rd_r=CQE6RA5DTDTWKAJ82YT9&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee
barnesandnoble.com/w/celibate-maria-giura/1131505200?ean=9781627202145
shop.aer.io/apprenticehouse/p/Celibate_A_Memoir/9781627202145-4208?collection=/0
bookshop.org/books/celibate-a-memoir/9781627202145
 
–
Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa 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 fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. 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: https://ronitplank.com/when-she-comes-back/
More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/
 
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