Let’s Talk Memoir

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

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

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

Lisa Cooper Ellison joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about therapy vs. memoir, taking care of our nervous systems while working on charged material, writing about trauma without retraumatizing ourselves, developing a robust self-care practice, how to avoid creating victim narratives in our memoirs, what to do with gaps in our memory, putting more of ourselves on the page, and her new podcast Writing Your Resilience.   Also in this episode: -signs of a trauma response -learning how to be present -neuroplasticity    Book mentioned in this episode: Writing to Heal by James Pennebaker Healing Trauma: Restoring the Wisdom of the Body by Peter A. Levine Trauma and Memory by Peter A. Levine Becoming the Love You Seek by Dr. Nicole Lepera Stash by Laura Cathcart Robbins Acetylene Torch Songs by Sue William Silverman What Happened to You by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey Hunger by Roxanne Gay Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn   Lisa Cooper Ellison is an author, speaker, and trauma-informed writing coach with an Ed.S in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and a background in mindfulness. She regularly presents and teaches courses on the use of mindfulness in writing, writing about trauma, the book proposal, and all things memoir. A regular contributor to the Jane Friedman blog, her essays and short stories have appeared in HuffPost, Hippocampus Literary Magazine, the New Guard Review, Kenyon Review Online, and Brevity, among others.   Connect with Lisa: Website: https://lisacooperellison.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisacooperellison/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisacooperellison/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lisacooperellison LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-ellison-b5483840/   — About Ronit Subscribe to Ronit's Memoir Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank?utm_source=profile-page 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   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

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

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  

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

Let’s Talk Memoir is a podcast for memoir lovers, readers and writers, featuring interviews with memoirists about their writing process, their challenges, and what they’ve learned about sharing the most personal of narratives. Hosted by writer, speaker, and memoirist Ronit Plank, each episode of this limited series highlights different aspects of the memoir writing experience, writing tips, and inspiration.   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 BACKabout 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

Elizabeth Rynecki and Tony Kaplan join Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about multi-disciplinary approaches to memoir, the different skills we need for storytelling modalities, their new podcast That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage, searching for answers to family stories, the documentary about Elizabeth’s great grandfather who perished in the Holocaust, drawing connections, how to weave two very disparate things, being humble, the hoops we jump through to get a project made, ADHD and autism, capturing a spectrum of voices, respecting privacy, consuming art in all its formats to enrich your own creativity, Elizabeth’s memoir Chasing Portraits: A Great Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy. Also in this episode: -steep learning curves -mother-son challenges -the importance of vulnerability in storytelling   Books mentioned in this episode: -Story of a Poem: A Memoir by Matthew Zapruder -I Am I Am I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death by Maggie O’Farrell -Unraveling by Peggy Orenstein -The Souvenir by Louise Steinman Documentaries mentioned in this episode: -Crip Camp by Nicole Newham and James LeBrecht -Shermans’ March by Ross McElwee Elizabeth Rynecki’s narrative non-fiction memoir, Chasing Portraits: A Great Granddaughter’s Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy was published by NAL/Penguin Random House in 2016 and received a Kirkus Starred Review. She wrote, produced, and appeared in the documentary film, Chasing Portraits. She’s been featured in the New York Times, been a guest on NPR affiliate stations, and been a speaker at bookstores, libraries, book festivals, and film screenings around the world. Her podcast, That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage is available everywhere you get podcasts. She’s working on a novel inspired by real events. Elizabeth has a BA in Rhetoric from Bates College and an MA in Rhetoric and Communication from UC Davis. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, two sons, and three black cats. Website: https://www.elizabethrynecki.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erynecki/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/erynecki.bsky.social Substack: https://substack.com/@elizabethrynecki?utm_source=user-menu Threads: https://www.threads.com/@erynecki That Sinking Feeling: Adventures in ADHD and Ship Salvage on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/that-sinking-feeling/id1789191829 Tony Kaplan is an Emmy-nominated documentary director, cinematographer and filmmaker. He has more than 20 years of experience as a creative lead working within the film industry, and he produced and edited “That Sinking Feeling,” a podcast about the unlikely intersection of ADHD and ship salvage.    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kaplantony Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user210636356 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wraplan – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Sarah Chauncey joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her many careers in writing, working on a memoir and deciding not to publish, framing the story we want to tell, experiencing ourselves as a part of living system, going deeper and becoming more vulnerable, taking responsibility for our wellbeing and mental health, not seeing oneself as a limited, pursuing inner peace, reading subtextual energy on the page, different forms of storytelling, patterns in memoir, searching for emotional transformation and change, and getting to the heart of spiritual and awakened memoir. Also in this episode: -the great mystery -no longer being a character -deciding not to be too public   Books mentioned in this episode: -Working by Studs Terkel -The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick -Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen  -Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg -The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown Sarah Chauncey is a veteran writer and developmental editor, as well as the author of P.S. I Love You More Than Tuna, the first gift book for adults grieving the loss of a pet. In the early part of her career, she wrote for VH1, Comedy Central and other TV outlets, as well as entertainment websites and music magazines. Later, she pivoted to storytelling for organizations including NASA, McAfee and Intel. Sarah writes the Resonant Storytelling Substack, which offers guidance on craft and process for creative nonfiction writers. She also writes The Counterintuitive Guide to Life, which helps readers develop mental health resilience by developing self-awareness; and More Than Tuna, which offers support for those grieving the loss of a pet. In recent years, she’s written for Tiny Buddha, Lion’s Roar, Modern Loss, Eckhart Tolle’s website, Jane Friedman’s blog and the Brevity blog.    Connect with Sarah: Website: https://www.sarahchauncey.com/ Substack: https://substack.com/@sarahchauncey Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahkchauncey/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahchauncey/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.k.chauncey   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Kaila Yu joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how she hated writing at first and has had an accidental career in it, how she had no intention of writing a memoir, selling a book on proposal and pitching off a timely event, racial and sexually motivated hate crime, Asian fetishization and the feeling of being other, her experience as a pin up model in the 90s, sexual assault and the flight, fight, fawn response, dismantling tropes, the male gaze, forms of erasure, internalized racism, putting it all out there, and her new memoir in essays Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty.   Also in this episode: -feeling invisible -shaping a book with an agent -the marathon that is book promotion Books mentioned in this episode: Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong My Body by Emily Ratajkowski Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It by Kamal Ravikant   Kaila Yu is an author with bylines in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Bon Appétit, Conde Nast Traveler, and many more.  Her debut memoir, ‘Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty,’ was published on August 19th, 2025, with Penguin Random House's Crown Publishing. Connect with Kaila: instagram.com/kailayu tiktok.com/@kaila.yu KailaYu.com https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738645/fetishized-by-kaila-yu/   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Tamara Jong joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up Jehovah’s Witness, her mother's untimely passing, losing faith, disguising who we are, trying multiple approaches to a writing practice, navigating material that resists us, becoming vulnerable, the tenderness of losing, learning to trust ourselves, weaving in motherhood and mother figures in our work, finding community and home, spirituality without religion, when we feel comfortable enough to be ourselves, and her new memoir in essays Worldly Girls. Also in this episode: -learning to trust others -leaning into what works for us -feeling compelled to finish books   Books mentioned in this episode: Lit by Mary Karr How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee Unquenchable Thirst by Mary Johnson    TAMARA JONG is a Tiohtià:ke (Montréal) born writer of Chinese and European ancestry. Her work has been published in the Humber Literary Review, Room Magazine, and The Fiddlehead, and has been both long and shortlisted for various creative non-fiction prizes. She is a graduate of The Writer’s Studio at Simon Fraser University, and a former member of Room Magazine’s collective. She currently lives and works on Treaty 3 territory, the occupied and ancestral lands of the Haudenosaunee, Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk, and Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation (Guelph, ON). Worldly Girls is her first book.   Connect with Tamara: Website: https://www.tamaraljong.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bokchoygurl BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/bokchoygurltjong.bsky.social Twitter: @Bokchoygurl Book*hug's website: https://bookhugpress.ca/shop/author/tamara-jong/worldly-girls-by-tamara-jong/ Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/worldly-girls-tamara-jong/1146964224?ean=9781771669504 Also available on Amazon or ask for it at your local bookstore or your library   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Diane Gottlieb, Jennifer Fliss, and Nina B. Lichtenstein join Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about their work as editors and what they look for in submissions, setting your writing apart, knowing where to omit for maximum impact, the magic of prompts, working with supportive editors, how constraints give us freedom, ordering an essay collection, how stories sustain us, disentangling the artist from politics, allyship, the process of becoming ourselves, celebrating our heritage, the ecosystem of Jewish life, submission calls, and our new anthology Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture and Heritage. Also in this episode: -being seen -writing into joy -being a Jew by choice    Purchase Manna Songs here: https://elj-editions.com/mannasongs/ and wherever you get your books www.Dianegottlieb.com www.Jenniferflisscreative.com https://www.ninalichtenstein.com/   Diane Gottlieb, MSW, MEd, MFA, is the editor of Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture & Heritage, the award-winning anthology Awakenings: Stories of Body & Consciousness, and Grieving Hope. Her writing appears in Brevity, Witness, River Teeth, 2023 Best Microfiction, Smokelong Quarterly, Bellevue Review, Colorado Review, JUDITH, and Jewish Book Council among many other lovely places. She is the winner of Tiferet Journal’s 2021 Writing Contest in Nonfiction, and a finalist for Hole in the Head Review’s 2024 Charles Simic Poetry Prize and Florida Review’s 2023 Editor’s Choice Award in Nonfiction. Diane is the Prose/CNF Editor at Emerge Literary and the Special Projects Editor at ELJ Editions. Connect with Diane:  https://elj-editions.com/mannasongs/ dianegottlieb.com @dianegotauthor   Jennifer Fliss (she/her) is a Seattle-based author of the collections, As If She Had a Say and The Predatory Animal Ball. Over 200 of her stories and essays have appeared in F(r)iction, PANK, Hobart, The Rumpus, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She was a Pen Parentis Fellow and recipient of a Grant for Artist Project award from Artist’s Trust.  www.jenniferflisscreative.com https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810146259/as-if-she-had-a-say/ https://okaydonkeymag.bigcartel.com/product/the-predatory-animal-ball-by-jennifer-fliss   Nina B. Lichtenstein is a native of Oslo, Norway, and holds a PhD in French literature from UCONN and an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program. She is the founder and director of Maine Writers Studio, and the co-founder and co-editor of In a Flash Lit Mag. Her writing has appeared in various journals, magazines, and outlets, as well as in several anthologies. Her book, Sephardic Women's Voices: Out of North Africa, was published by Gaon Books in 2017, and her memoir, Body: My Life in Parts by Vine Leaves Press in May , 2025. She has three adult sons, and lives in Maine with her husband.  https://www.facebook.com/ninalich/ https://www.instagram.com/vikingjewess/ https://ninablichtenstein.substack.com/ https://www.ninalichtenstein.com/ https://www.mainewritersstudio.com/ https://vineleavespress.myshopify.com/products/body-my-life-in-parts-by-nina-b-lichtenstein – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Edgar Gomez joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up poor in Florida, wanting to believe in the American dream and realizing it’s not accessible, surviving a precarious childhood, reckoning with trauma, grappling with and excavating shame, what queer people want vs. what they get, navigating sex work, the Pulse nightclub tragedy, when to tell family about our memoirs, writing about others with generosity, staying true to our identity, fighting for joy, and their memoir in essays Alligator Tears.   Also in this episode: -staying true to ourselves -growing up NicaRican -navigating queerness   Books mentioned in this episode: Butterfly Boy by Rigoberto Gonzalez Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Neale Hurston   Edgar Gomez is a queer NicaRican writer born and raised in Florida. He is the author of the memoir High-Risk Homosexual, winner of the American Book Award, a Stonewall Israel-Fishman Nonfiction Book Honor Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. Their sophomore book, Alligator Tears, was released in February 2025 and was called "Triumphant, dazzling, and unfailingly stylish" by Publisher's Weekly. A graduate of the University of California’s MFA program, Gomez has written for The LA Times, Poets & Writers, Lithub, New York Magazine, and beyond. He has received fellowships from The New York Foundation for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, and The Black Mountain Institute. He lives between New York and Puerto Rico. Find him across social media @OtroEdgarGomez.   Connect with Edgar: Website: EdgarGomez.net @OtroEdgarGomez on Bluesky and instagram.  Get the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743399/alligator-tears-by-edgar-gomez/   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Anne Abel joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her experiences winning the Moth StorySLAM, what she learned from the storytelling community, the lifelong toll of her parents’ abuse and her chronic, recurrent depression, overcoming self-loathing, how Bruce Springsteen changed her life, following a hunch, overcoming writers block, why it’s better to overwrite than underwrite, her giant following on TikTok and Instagram, why it’s never too late to move forward, taking a leap and landing on our feet, allowing ourselves to persevere and dream, and her new memoir High Hopes.   Also in this episode: -capturing story -leaning into dialogue -why it’s never too late to move forward Books mentioned in this episode:  -Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy -Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen -Educated by Tara Westover -Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs   Anne Abel is an author, storyteller, and influencer with over 700 thousand followers. Her first memoir, Mattie, Milo, and Me, (2024), about unwittingly rescuing an aggressive dog, was inspired by her Moth StorySLAM win in New York City. Her second memoir, High Hopes, was inspired by her Moth StorySLAM win in Chicago. It will be published September, 23, 2025. In January, 2025 she was featured in Newsweek, “Boomer’s Story About How She Met Her Husband of 45 Years Captivates Internet.” She holds an MFA from The New School for Social Research, an MBA from the University of Chicago, and a BS in chemical engineering from Tufts University. She has freelanced for multiple outlets over the course of her career.   Anne lives in New York City with her husband, Andy, and their cavapoo puppy, Wendell. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok: @annesimaabel Connect with Anne: Instagram, TikTok, FB @annesimaabel Website: www.anneabelauthor.com High Hopes: A Memoir: https://a.co/d/88HiMkb Mattie, Milo, and Me: A Memoir: https://a.co/d/aiDwCqw – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Heather Sweeney joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her quest to find out who she was apart from her life as a military wife, mining 20 years worth of journals, uncovering internal dynamics through writing, knowing where to begin a memoir, managing multiple settings with a chronological timeline, cutting redundancies, retitling a memoir late in the game, killing our darlings, writing about exes, coping strategies, reclaiming identity, being true to our own writing process, and her new memoir Camouflage: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage.   Also in this episode: -writing when you can -the e-structure -brainstorming for titles Books mentioned in this episode: -Seven Drafts Allison K. Williams -Wild by Cheryl Strayed -On Writing by Stephen King -Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott -Big Magic by Elizabeth GIlbert -Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum -The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr -The Book Bible by Sue Shapiro -A Thousand Words by Jamie Attenberg   Heather Sweeney is the author of the memoir Camouflage: How I Emerged from the Shadows of a Military Marriage. She writes about divorce, life as a military spouse, parenting, and women’s health, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, TODAY.com, Newsweek, Business Insider, Good Housekeeping, Healthline, Grown and Flown, Military.com, and many others. She lives in Virginia with her boyfriend, two college-aged kids, and their geriatric Labrador retriever. Connect with Heather: Website: https://www.heatherlsweeney.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writersweeney  Threads: https://www.threads.net/@writersweeney  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@heathersweeneywrites  Substack: https://heathersweeney.substack.com/  Amazon: http://posthill.to/B0F316HJTD Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/camouflage-heather-sweeney/1147211233 Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/camouflage-how-i-emerged-from-the-shadows-of-a-military-marriage-heather-sweeney/22522585 Target: https://www.target.com/p/camouflage-by-heather-sweeney-paperback/-/A-1003183204   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Kelly Foster Lundquist joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about falling in love with creative nonfiction, believing our story is worth sharing, contemplating how to tell it without hurting someone else, shifting from writing academically to personally, taking 20 years to complete a memoir, leaning into and trusting the particularity of our story, learning to stop explaining in our manuscripts, trying different structural approaches, the pattern hungry brain, incorporating culture, history, and research, when writing feels redemptive, liberating, and affirming, and her new memoir Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage.   Also in this episode: -gratitude -conversion therapy -when a story feels too sacred   Books mentioned in this episode: -The Argonauts by Maggie Nelston -The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr -Seven Drafts: Self-Edit Like a Pro from Blank Page to Books by Allison K. Williams -Craft in the Real World: Rethinking Fiction Writing and Workshopping by Matthew Salessas   Kelly Foster Lundquist teaches writing at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, MN. Originally from Mississippi, Lundquist has taught writing all over the United States (Boston, Chicago, Mississippi, Seattle, California, etc), as well as in Slovakia and Scotland. Her poetry and nonfiction can be seen in many places, including Villain Era Lit, Last Syllable Lit, Whale Road Review, and Image Journal. Her work has been nominated for a 2024 Best of the Net Award as well as a Pushcart Prize. She is the recipient of grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board as well as the Central Minnesota Arts Board. Her book Beard: A Memoir of a Marriage (Eerdmans) will debut in October 2025. She lives in a little red house in Minnesota with her spouse and daughter.  Connect with Kelly: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellyfosterlundquist Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1EgWxeL94v/?mibextid=wwXIfr Website: https://www.kellyfosterlundquist.com/ Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/beard-a-memoir-of-a-marriage-kelly-foster-lundquist/22424165?ean=9780802884732&next=t   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Shigeko Ito joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the lasting impact of childhood emotional neglect, how invisible trauma can manifest in adult life, fragmented memories, facing a fierce inner critic, accepting limits, growing as a person and as a writer, when the back story feels as important and relevant as the front story, the often chaotic experience of managing lots of material, becoming more compassionate, the healing power of storytelling, the generational trauma we inherit, using our experience to help others, and her new memoir The Pond Beyond the Forest: Reflections on Childhood Trauma and Motherhood.   Also in this episode: -not giving up -our authentic selves -viewing our work from a larger picture   Books mentioned in this episode: -Writing Without a Parachute:The Art of Freefall by Barbara Turner-Vesselago  -Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg -The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr -Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg -Your Life as Story by Tristine Rainer -Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling by Michelle Barker   Shigeko Ito is an author, educator, and mental health advocate in Seattle who  grew up in Japan and immigrated to the United States in her early twenties to pursue higher education. She holds an MEd in early childhood education with an integrated Montessori teaching credential from the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California, and a PhD in Education from Stanford University.  Her articles have appeared on the CPTSD Foundation's blog and on the ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America) website. She has spent many years teaching at a Montessori preschool in Seattle, where she lives with her husband of thirty years.  Her new memoir is The Pond Beyond the Forest: Reflections on Childhood Trauma and Motherhood.   Connect with Shigeko: Website: shigekoito.com Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shigekoitomemoir Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/shigekochakoito LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shigekoito-memoir Twitter/X: x.com/ShigekoChakoIto Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shigekoito.bsky.social The Pond Beyond the Forest: Reflections on Childhood Trauma and Motherhood is available at major retailers such as Amazon, Barnes &; Noble, and Apple Books. However, the official purchase link is: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Pond-Beyond-the-Forest/Shigeko-Ito/9781647429805   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Leslie Johansen Nack joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up with parents who struggled with mental illness and substance abuse, surviving an inappropriate and domineering father, getting tools to heal, making ourselves safe, knowing as a child you will write your story, becoming sober, portraying difficult and abusive people as whole human beings, writing a memoir like a novel, when family members disavow our memoirs, excavating the divided self on the page, grappling with feeling exposed, telling the truth to help move the cultural needle, and her new memoir Nineteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery.   *Seattle area listeners, Leslie and Ronit will be in conversation at Third Place Books Ravenna on Tuesday, October 28th 2025 at 7:00. Reserve your spot here: https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/event/leslie-johansen-nack Also in this episode: -overcoming past trauma -writing a memoir sequel -when siblings respond to our memoir differently   Book mentioned in this episode: Liars Club by Mary Karr The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls Wild by Cheryl Strayed American Daughter by Stephanie Thornton Plymale How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair Unearthed: On Race and Roots, and How the Soil Taught Me I Belong by Claire Ratinon Leslie Johansen Nack is the author of two award-winning books: her debut memoir, Fourteen, and her historical novel, The Blue Butterfly. Hersequel, Nineteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery, a Zibby most anticipated book for 2025, concludes her raw and deeply personal story, chronicling her path to sobriety and a renewed sense of hope. Nack graduated from UCLA with a degree in English literature and overcame past traumas to raise two children in a healthy, loving home. She is a member of NAMW, the Historical Novel Society, and the PNWA. She lives outside Seattle with her husband.    Connect with Leslie: Website: www.lesliejohansennack.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lesliejohansennack/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Leslie.johansen.nack/ YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqImTCBk_TIKCpA7NSWHbbQ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/search/books/_/N-/Ntt-Leslie+Johansen+Nack   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Sue William Silverman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about evolving as a writer and bringing freshness to the same subject, experimenting with truncated and fractured forms, making a collection more cohesive, writing to feel centered, utilizing a recurring persona, the divided self in memoir, trusting the pieces will fall into place, giving ourselves new challenges, leaning into sensory details, writing as imagistically as possible, focusing on our obsessions, claiming our story, and her new collection Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader.   Also in this episode: -using metaphor -our core narratives -casting a light on the narrator’s interiority Books and resources mentioned in this episode: -Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly -flash essays at Brevitymag.com -find Sue’s complete list of book recommendations at SueWilliamSilverman.com   Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author of nine works of nonfiction and poetry. Her new book, "Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader," is a collection of flash essays. Her book on the craft of writing, "Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul," won the 2024 IPPY Silver Award. Her memoir-in essays collection, "How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences," won the gold star in Foreword Reviews INDIE Book of the Year Award and the Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature. Other works include "Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction," made into a Lifetime TV movie; "Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You," which won the AWP Award; and "The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew." She’s co-chair of the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her media appearances include The View, Anderson Cooper-360, and PBS Books.  Connect with Sue: Website: www.SueWilliamSilverman.com Facebook: SueWilliamSilverman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suewilliamsilverman University of Nebraska Press: https://tinyurl.com/mwph3wvs Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/56n9u9p5 Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/bsa7ay22   – Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers