Let’s Talk Memoir

Going Viral and Going to Auction featuring Geraldine DeRuiter

Geraldine DeRuiter joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how being okay with yourself has become deeply radical, the role women have in the home and culinary world, our complex personal and societal relationship with food and feminism, body unkindness and the erosion of body trust, her blog the Everywhereist.com, getting used to imperfection, working with an editor, going viral multiple times, parasocial relationships and creating boundaries, winning a James Beard Award for her writing, and her new book If You Can’t Take the Heat. 
 
Also in this episode: 
-Mario Batali and his cinnamon buns
-resisting tying everything up with a bow
-Nestle Road Pie
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Keys to Great Writing by Stephen Wilburs
Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg
How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James N. Frey
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
On Writing by Stephen King
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Books by: Mindy Kaling, Phoebe Robinson, Jenny Lawson
 
Geraldine DeRuiter is a James Beard Award–winning blogger and bestselling author and the voice behind Everywhereist.com. She is the author of ALL OVER THE PLACE: ADVENTURES OF TRAVEL, TRUE LOVE, AND PETTY THEFT (Public Affairs, 2017) and the national bestseller IF YOU CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT: TALES OF FOOD, FEMINISM, AND FURY (Crown, 2024). Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Yorker’s Daily Shouts, Marie Claire, and Refinery 29. She lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, Rand. They are currently working on a cooking-themed video game and ordering too much takeout.
Connect with Geraldine:
Website: www.everywhereist.com
Get her book: https://www.amazon.com/If-You-Cant-Take-Heat/dp/0593444485
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@theeverywhereist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theeverywhereist/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywhereist
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Everywhereist/
 
—
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

Dismantling the Fear About Sharing Our Stories featuring Jo-Ann Finkelstein, PhD

Jo-Ann Finkelstein, PhD joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about dismantling the fear about sharing our stories, finding the freedom to give voice to what we experienced, recognizing when the culture is the problem not us, unexpressed anger and chronic pain, memoir as a way to help family validate our experiences, the unseen messages girls and women get, why we must always follow up on queries, building platform, believing what we have to say is important, and her new book Sexism and Sensibility.
 
Also in this episode:
-beyond girl power
-making sure the pain we write about is processed
-gender bias
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall 
Girls and Sex by Peggy orenstein 
Why Does Patriarchy Persist by Carol Gilligan 
Blow Your House Down by Gina Frangello
Recollections of My Nonexistence Rebecca Solnit 
Girlhood by Melissa Febos
Jo-Ann Finkelstein, PhD, a clinical psychologist, trained at Harvard University and Northwestern University and now maintains a private clinical practice rooted in an understanding of how bias, social justice, and mental health intersect. An expert blogger for Psychology Today, her work has been highlighted in The New York Times, The Harvard Business Review, Women’s Health, Oprah Daily, and on HuffPost and CNN. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Ms. Magazine, and Your Teen, among other publications. Dr. Finkelstein has served on the board of the Chicago Chapter of the National Organization for Women, volunteered for Planned Parenthood PAC, and was an organizer for the Chicago Women’s March. She lives in Chicago, Illinois with her family and two beloved dogs.
Connect with Jo-Ann
Website: joannfinkelstein.com
Substack: https://joannfinkelstein.substack.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joannfinkelstein.phd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086974203277
X: https://twitter.com/finkeljo
 
—
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

Thinking Like an Editor, Meaty Bylines, and Mitzvahs featuring Susan Shapiro

Susan Shapiro joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the smart way to get meaty bylines, how to think like an editor, placing small pieces, getting tough criticism and listening to it, productive writing schedules, taking care of ourselves and setting boundaries, when to bring editors into the mix, putting work away for a while, filling your cup so you can give generously, some publishing case studies, a special speed round, her popular workshops, and her books The Byline Bible and The Book Bible.
 
Also in this episode:
-feelings of competitiveness 
-being provocative, being timely
-doing mitzvahs
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-The Byline Bible by Susan Shapiro
-The Book Bible by Susan Shapiro
-Docile by Hyeseung Song
-The Chair and the Valley by Banning Lyon
-Black American Refugee by Tiffanie Drayton
-The Bosnia List by Kenan Trebincevic and Sue Shapiro
-The Queen of Gay Street by Esther Mollica
-How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell 
 
Susan Shapiro is an award winning writing professor and the bestselling author of many books her family hates, like the memoirs Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Lighting Up and The Forgiveness Tour, out in paperback July 23. She's coauthor of Unhooked, The Bosnia List and American Shield. She's freelanced for the New York Times, WSJ, Washington Post, Newsweek, Wired, Elle, The Cut, Oprah and New Yorker magazines online. She lives in Manhattan with her scriptwriter husband and uses her publishing guides "The Byline Bible" and "The Book Bible" for the popular classes she teaches at NYU, The New School, Columbia University and now online. You can follow her on Instagram at @profsue123. 
Connect with Susan:
Website: https://Susanshapiro.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanshapironet
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profsue123/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Susanshapironet
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-shapiro-9171755/
 
—
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 Forgiveness Tour featuring Susan Shapiro

Susan Shapiro joins Let’s Talk Memoir for part one of our conversation about the nature of forgiveness and why she wrote a memoir about it, being a multiple-memoir writer, why she’s glad her latest took 12 years to complete, starting a memoir with a question, the importance of mentors to our work and life, the nature of therapeutic relationships, overcoming addiction, avoiding kvetch-fests in our pages, working on other projects simultaneously, writing groups, and her memoir The Forgiveness Tour. 
 
Also in this episode:
-the best way to launch a memoir
-good apologies
-father figures
 
Susan Shapiro is an award winning writing professor and the bestselling author of many books her family hates, like the memoirs Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Lighting Up and The Forgiveness Tour, out in paperback July 23. She's coauthor of Unhooked, The Bosnia List and American Shield. She's freelanced for the New York Times, WSJ, Washington Post, Newsweek, Wired, Elle, The Cut, Oprah and New Yorker magazines online. She lives in Manhattan with her scriptwriter husband and uses her publishing guides "The Byline Bible" and "The Book Bible" for the popular classes she teaches at NYU, The New School, Columbia University and now online. You can follow her on Instagram at @profsue123. 
Connect with Susan:
Website: https://Susanshapiro.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanshapironet
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profsue123/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Susanshapironet
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-shapiro-9171755/
 
—
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

Deep Love, Deep Honesty featuring Lola Milholland

Lola Milholland joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about communal living and interconnection, writing about food and its impact on our sense of home and culture, writing about loved ones with honesty, not sharing early drafts, exploring material that calls to us energetically, going directly to publishers, the role of privacy and boundaries in our lives and her new book Group Living and Other Recipes.
 
Also in this episode:
-food and culture
-commune cookbooks
-searching acknowledgement pages for publishers
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Vibration Cooking by Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
My Picture Diary by Fujiwara Maki
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Holy Land by DJ Waldie
Lola Milholland is a food-business owner and writer. A former editor for Edible Portland magazine, she currently lives in Portland, Oregon, and runs Umi Organic, a noodle company with a commitment to providing nutritious public school lunch. Her debut book, GROUP LIVING AND OTHER RECIPES, will be published by Spiegel & Grau in August 2024.
Connect with Lola:
Website: www.lolasbeef.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lolamilho
Get Lola’s Book: https://www.spiegelandgrau.com/group-living/
—
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

Making, Loving, and Losing Family featuring Jessica Fein

Jessica Fein joins Let’s talk Memoir for a conversation about making, loving and losing family, how we go from the desire to fix and control to understanding some things are out our hands, creating a life of meaning, memoir vs. a collection of essays, when the ending changes, being okay with revising, recognizing when our manuscripts need more work, navigating feedback, finding joy even in the context of extreme uncertainty and sadness, her podcast I Don’t Know How You Do It, living on the precipice, and her memoir Breath Taking: A Memoir of Family, Dreams, and Broken Genes.
 
Also in this episode:
-when our story isn’t ready
-finding the beginning, middle, and end
-surviving seemingly insurmountable circumstances
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith
The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr
Books by Ellen Gilchrist
 
Jessica Fein is the author of Breath Taking: A Memoir of Family, Dreams, and Broken Genes," and host of the "I Don't Know How You Do It” podcast, which features people whose lives seem unimaginable to others. She’s a seasoned media contributor, with forums including Newsweek, Psychology Today, The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Scary Mommy, and more. Jessica is a relentless warrior in the memory of her dynamic daughter whom she lost to rare disease in 2022. Her work encompasses hope and humor, grit and grace -- the tools that make up her personal survival kit. Jessica serves on the Board of Directors of MitoAction. She’s the mother of three, whom she and her husband adopted from Guatemala. They live outside of Boston with their quasi-service dog, who trained himself.
 
Connect with Jessica:
Website: https://www.jessicafeinstories.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jessica.fein.92/
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-fein-b643b09
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feinjessica/
Book is available at the usual places: Amazon, Bookshop.org, B&N, etc.
I Don’t Know How You Do It Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-know-how-you-do-it/id1668168226
 
—
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

Coming to Grips with Vulnerability on the Page featuring Danielle M. Bryan

Danielle M. Bryan joins me for a conversation about how she coped with cascading life adversities including multiple sclerosis and divorce, what it was like for her to share deeply emotional experiences on the page, leading with vulnerability, her decision to use a pseudonym, working with a developmental editor, using a hybrid publisher, creating the space and time for what we need personally and creatively, and her new memoir Unparalyzed: Beating an Invisible Pre-Midlife Crisis
 
Also in this episode:
-the toll of autoimmune disease
-reshaping our stories
-taking solo trips to create
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
-Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
-Love Sick by Cory Martin
 
By day, Danielle M. Bryan is a non-profit executive leader and a board member.  She is a proud Jamaican-American, a wife, a mother, a daughter and an avid lover of international travel. So far, Danielle’s international travel destinations have included the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, France, Greece, Indonesia , Jamaica, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, Turkey, Italy, Belize and Canada! London and Munich are next up – this Summer, in June!  Similar to her passion for traveling, Danielle developed a love for expressing herself through written words and through story-telling. She describes her debut memoir as the story that found her after life threw her a few curve balls and she decided to use her journey and the lessons she learned along the way to inspire others.
 
Connect with Danielle:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authordbry/
Website: https://www.unparalyzedmemoir.com/
Get her book: https://a.co/d/iyqrhA3
https://www.archwaypublishing.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/856866-unparalyzed
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/unparalyzed-danielle-m-bryan/1144672859?ean=9781665753326
—
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

A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy featuring Tia Levings

Tia Levings joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her escape from Christian patriarchy and what she’s experienced firsthand with Christian nationalism and the Religious Right, why her story is a warning and is becoming more relevant by the day, the disempowerment and isolation of living in high control situations, trauma therapy, not exhausting readers with too much reality, comprehensive legal reviews, privacy and safety issues, composite characters, maintaining a big social media platforms as well as healthy boundaries, and her her path to publishing A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy.
 
Also in this episode:
-writing 13 drafts
-working with Lisa Cooper Ellison and Jane Friedman
-the querying process
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Situation and the Story by Vivan Gornick
Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro From Blank Page to Book by Allison K. Williams
On Writing by Stephen King
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler 
Tia Levings is a writer and content creator who educates on the abuses of Christian fundamentalism. She recently appeared in the Amazon docuseries, Shiny Happy People. Her memoir A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy, releases with St. Martin’s Press in August of 2024.
 
Connect with Tia:
Website: https://tialevings.com
Get her book: https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/well-trained-wife-9781250288288/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tialevingswriter/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tialevingswriter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TiaLevingsWriter
 
—
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

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:
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

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