54. The Truest Story You Can Tell featuring Jill Christman

54. The Truest Story You Can Tell featuring Jill Christman

Jill Christman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how our deepest stories can save our lives, approaching trauma-writing as a process of discovery, practical tips for working on difficult material, allowing ourselves as much time as our essays need, finding the truest truth in our work, her role as senior editor at River Teeth, and her new memoir in essays If This Were Fiction.

-Visit the Let's Talk Memoir Merch store: https://www.zazzle.com/store/letstalkmemoir

Also in this episode:

-how writing and publishing are not the same thing

-when authors flinch

-going really deep

Essay Daily article by Jill Christman http://www.essaydaily.org/2017/12/dec-22-jill-christman-on-essays-to-pry.html

Books mentioned in this episode:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes

Childhood by Natalie Sarraute

All Over But the Shouting by Rick Bragg

The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr

Cherry by Mary Karr

Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

A Fish Growing Lungs Alysia Sawchyn

Hell If We Don’t Change Our Ways by Brittany Means

In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward

The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken

Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Beth Nguyen

Jill Christman is the author of If This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) and two memoirs, Darkroom: A Family Exposure (winner of AWP Prize for CNF) and Borrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood. A 2020 NEA Literature Fellow and winner of the AWP Creative Nonfiction Prize, she is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Ball State University, senior editor of River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative, and executive producer of the podcast Indelible: Campus Sexual Violence.

Connect with Jill:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jill_christman

Website: jillchristman.com

Writing sexual trauma: http://www.essaydaily.org/2018/12/dec-13-jill-christman-on-writing-sexual.html

Essays to pry open doors: http://www.essaydaily.org/2017/12/dec-22-jill-christman-on-essays-to-pry.html

Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards, the Housatonic Book Awards, and the Book of the Year Awards. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/

More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/

Connect with Ronit:

https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

https://twitter.com/RonitPlank

https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

Background photo: Canva

Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography

Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Jaksot(213)

192. Portraying Complicated Love For a Parent featuring Maura Casey

192. Portraying Complicated Love For a Parent featuring Maura Casey

Maura Casey joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the toll longterm illness has on a family, her sister Ellen’s kidney disease and researching the history of kidney transplants for her memoir, when alcohol is a member of the family, growing up with a manipulative parent who didn’t keep promises, sibling dynamics, being a lifelong diary keeper, her decades in journalism and transitioning to memoir, joining a writer’s group, keeping chapters short, deciding on a structure, portraying complicated love, leaving space for forgiveness, and her new memoir Saving Ellen: A Memoir of Hope and Recovery.   Also in this episode: -parentified children -medical trauma -supporting independent bookstores   Books mentioned in this episode: -I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou -Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt -The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls -Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt -The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr   Maura Casey is a native of Buffalo NY, and is the youngest of six in a big Irish family. She’s been a writer since the age of 12 and grew up to have a more than three decade career in journalism, writing opinion for four newspapers- including as a member of The NY Times editorial board. She has won more than 40 awards in journalism. Her book, “Saving Ellen: A Memoir of Hope and Recovery,” will be release by Skyhorse Publishing in April of 2025. Connect with Maura: Website: www.caseyink.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/maura.casey.57/ BlueSky: @mauracasey.bsky.social Get the book: https://a.co/d/79edoZ3 – 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

14 Elo 33min

191. Memoir as a Time Capsule featuring Linda Trinh

191. Memoir as a Time Capsule featuring Linda Trinh

Linda Trinh joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her personal spiritual journey, opening a memoir with a question, sparks of creativity even when we’re not actively writing, focusing on voice, owning our many identities and communities, making meaning from experience, paying attention to both the external and internal search, memoir as a time capsule, being okay with the version of ourselves as it is on the page, being gentle with ourselves, recognizing we are works in progress, Buddhism and world mythology, becoming comfortable with the unknown, and her new memoir Seeking Spirit.    Also in this episode: -book promotion -owning our identities -paying attention to the nudge   Books mentioned in this episode: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Blue Nights by Joan Didion Embers by Richard Wagamese Body and Soul: Stories for Skeptics and Seeker by Susan Scott Perspehones Children by Rowan McCandless   Linda Trinh is a Vietnamese Canadian author of nonfiction and fiction for adults and children. Her creative nonfiction has appeared in literary magazines such as The Fiddlehead, Room, and Prairie Fire. She has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards. Seeking Spirit: A Vietnamese (Non) Buddhist Memoir is her first book for adults. Her award-winning early chapter book series, The Nguyen Kids, explores Vietnamese culture and identity with elements of the supernatural, spirituality, and social justice woven in. She lives with her family in Winnipeg, Canada. Connect with Linda: Website: https://lindaytrinh.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/LindaYTrinh Get her book: https://guernicaeditions.com/products/seeking-spirit?srsltid=AfmBOor-knwnqu9qqq7QBvtBJYsWYRYebw3JrIr9cV-rjFzEwe2oP2nL – 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

12 Elo 27min

190. The Most Honest, Brave, and True Thing You Can Say featuring Amber Rae

190. The Most Honest, Brave, and True Thing You Can Say featuring Amber Rae

Amber Rae joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about meeting her soulmate while already married, living a story as you write it, allowing a book to show you what it needs to be, writing for our own growth and delight, slowing scenes down to put readers in our lived experience, holding onto the larger intention of the book, wounds we're afraid to look at, facing both old and new shame, compassionate understanding, learning how to mother ourselves, revealing intimate details of our lives in public forums, authentically inserting our voice into our chosen medium, healing through the process of writing, choosing to be as brave as possible on the page, and her new memoir Loveable: One Woman’s Path from Good to Free.   Also in this episode: -setting boundaries -tracing original patterns -bringing readers  into our interior world   Books mentioned in this episode: -Untamed by Glennon Doyle -You Could Make this Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith -Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth GIlbert   Amber is the international bestselling author of Choose Wonder Over Worry (translated into 8 languages), The Answers Are Within You, and The Feelings Journal. Her writing and illustrations reach millions of people per month in nearly 200 countries, and she’s been featured in The New York Times, NYMag, TODAY, SELF, Forbes, and Entrepreneur. She’s a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator who’s worked with Kate Spade, Meta, Microsoft, Merrill Lynch, Lululemon, Unilever, TED, SAP, and more. A Seth Godin alum, Amber helped launch his publishing company with Amazon and supported authors like Steven Pressfield and Derek Sivers. She’s also mentored over 1,000 writers and helped more than a dozen land six-figure book deals. As a creative entrepreneur, Amber has launched global journaling challenges, art movements, life accelerators, and book birthing workshops. Her personal journaling practice spans 30 years, forming the foundation of her inner work and creative clarity. Her new memoir is Loveable: One Woman’s Path from Good to Free.   Connect with Amber:  Website: https://www.amberrae.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyamberrae/   – 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

7 Elo 39min

189. Trusting our Intuition and Staying True to Our Vision featuring Amy Mackin

189. Trusting our Intuition and Staying True to Our Vision featuring Amy Mackin

Amy Mackin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the disability landscape and advocating for our children, special education and early intervention, struggling to get kids the help they need, parental guilt and shame, mom rage,  flexible education programs, balancing how we write about loved ones, changing names for privacy, showing the parts of us that are really cranky, wondering if we're getting it wrong, beginning a memoir in MFA program, using a hybrid memoir form, placing work in literary journals, trusting our intuition and voice, staying true to our own style and vision, and her new memoir Henry’s Classroom: A “Special” Education in American Motherhood.   Also in this episode: -family and gender roles -feeling as if we don’t fit in -conflicting feedback from agents   Books mentioned in this episode: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Lit by Mary Karr Mom Rage by Minna Dubin Screaming on the Inside by Jessica Grose books by Barbara Ehrenreich books by Nora Ephron   Amy Mackin writes at the intersection of education, cultural history, public health, and social equity. Her essays have been featured in The Atlantic, Chalkbeat, The Washington Post, Literary Mama, The Writers Chronicle, The Shriver Report, and elsewhere. She earned her MA in American Studies from the University of Massachusetts and her MFA in Creative Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her new memoir is Henry’s Classroom: A “Special” Education in American Motherhood from Apprentice House/Loyola University Press.    Connect with Amy: Website: www.amymackin.com Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/AmyMackinWriter/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amymackin/ X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/mackinwriting Get the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/henry-s-classroom-a-special-education-in-american-motherhood-a-memoir-amy-mackin/22134318?ean=9781627205726&next=t&affiliate=109363   – 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

5 Elo 39min

188. Reckoning with and Writing About Being Raised by Parents with Mental Illness featuring Natasha Williams

188. Reckoning with and Writing About Being Raised by Parents with Mental Illness featuring Natasha Williams

Natasha Williams joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about caring for her schizophrenic father and the jeopardy of being in his life, narcissism and her mother’s limited parenting resources, handling misbehaving parents and reckoning with the toll they took on her childhood, precocious and feral kids, getting clarity on family through writing, re-understanding childhood stories and our parents’ stories, finding an entry point to our narrative, balancing the character and narrator in memoir, beta readers, staying in relationship with loved ones living with mental illness, and her new memoir The Parts of Him I Kept: The Gifts of My Father’s Madness.   Also in this episode: -setting boundaries -the heritability of mental illness -checking in with our kids before writing about them   Books mentioned in this episode: The Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg We the Animals by Justin Torres   Author Bio- Natasha Williams has worked as an adjunct biology professor at SUNY Ulster in the Hudson Valley of New York and as a consultant for the International Public-School Network, coaching science teachers. She has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2020, she continued working on the manuscript summers at the Bread Loaf School of English and at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference in 2023. Excerpts of The Parts of Him I Kept, forthcoming April 2025 from Apprentice House Press, have been published in the Bread Loaf Journal, Change Seven, LIT, Memoir Magazine, Onion River Review, Writers Read, Post Road, and South Dakota Review. Connect with Natasha: Website: Natashawilliamswriter.com Get the book: https://www.natashawilliamswriter.com/memoir/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-williams-5998949/ X: https://x.com/NatashaW_writes – 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

31 Heinä 34min

187. Forgiving Ourselves, Forgiving Others featuring Ed Latimore

187. Forgiving Ourselves, Forgiving Others featuring Ed Latimore

Ed Latimore joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up in an urban warzone and surviving domestic violence, poverty, and limited resources, life in the boxing ring, writing about alcoholism and sobriety, building up the muscle of sharing and being vulnerable, when an agent tells you your approach to your book is all wrong, giving ourselves time to process, sharing our stories to help others, rebalancing the cosmic scales, the difference between gratitude and entitlement, coping with resentment, betting on ourselves, risking ostracism, using our life to teach, forgiving ourselves and forgiving others, and his new memoir Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business: Boxing and the Art of Life.   Also in this episode: -building platforms -making new connection with our connections  -embracing new version of ourselves   Books mentioned in this episode: Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins The Art of Learning by Josh Whiteskin Travels by Michael Crichton   Ed Latimore is an author, former professional American heavyweight boxer, competitive chess player, and the founder of Stoic Street-Smarts. He holds a degree in physics and is a veteran of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. He lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Connect with Ed: Website: edlatimore.com X: https://x.com/edlatimore Instagram: https://instagram.com/edlatimoore Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edlatimore/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EdLatimore1   – 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

29 Heinä 43min

186. Broadening a Memoir’s Scale, Accessibility, and Audience featuring Mallory McDuff

186. Broadening a Memoir’s Scale, Accessibility, and Audience featuring Mallory McDuff

Mallory McDuff joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about expanding a project from straight memoir to broaden its accessibility and audience, feedback from editors about what’s marketable, placing an essay to help sell a book, starting a memoir  in the middle of the story, death and choices we can make that align our final wishes with the values we hold in our life, conversations around burial, making less of an impact on the earth, how detachment from death and dying is relatively new in our culture, allowing scenes to stack upon themselves, how to weave the personal throughout the whole book to take the reader with us, and her new memoir Our Last Best Act: Planning for the End of Our Lives to Protect the People and Places We Love.    Also in this episode: -living with and on the earth -climate justice -mirroring real conversations in memoir   Books mentioned in this episode:  The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkl Wild Spectacle by Janisse Ray Soil by Camille Dungy Briefly Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur The Green Burial Guidebook by Elizabeth Fournier From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty   Mallory McDuff writes and teaches environmental education at Warren Wilson College, a liberal arts school that integrates academics with work and community engagement. She lives on campus with her two daughters in a 900-square foot house with an expansive view of a white barn, a herd of cows, and the Appalachian mountains of Western North Carolina, an area still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Helen. Her writing examines the intersection of people and places for a better world.    She is the author of the books Love Your Mother: 50 States, 50 Stories, and 50 Women United for Climate Justice (Broadleaf Books); Our Last Best Act: Planning for the End of Our Lives to Protect the People and Places We Love (Broadleaf Books); Sacred Acts: How Churches are Working to Protect Earth’s Climate (New Society Publishers); Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God’s Earth (Oxford University Press) and co-author of Conservation Education and Outreach Techniques, 2nd Ed., (Oxford University Press).    In addition, she has published 20 articles in academic journals and more than 50 essays in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, Sojourners, and more. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida, M.S. from the University of South Alabama, and B.S. from Vanderbilt University.  Connect with Mallory: Website: https://mallorymcduff.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mallory.mcduff Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mallorymcduff1/ X: https://x.com/malmcduff Link to purchase Our Last Best Act: https://bookshop.org/p/books/our-last-best-act-planning-for-the-end-of-our-lives-to-protect-the-people-and-places-we-love-mallory-mcduff/16147581?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAu8W6BhC-ARIsACEQoDCXXHpQuMQxxUoTaRQmdReLz7lFh-2qI4DYUvze6KyZm6hPclcqrZ4aAkMzEALw_wcB   – 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

24 Heinä 33min

185. Searching Hard for Self featuring Katy Grabel

185. Searching Hard for Self featuring Katy Grabel

Katy Grabel joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about a childhood immersed in professional magic, when a parent’s dream because ours, wanting to be famous, searching hard for self, trying to understand the allure of our parents’ choices, using journals to familiarize ourselves with our emotional life from the past, what drives someone to want to be a magician, seeing the whole person when writing about loved ones and accepting their good and their bad, going deep, not including everything just because it’s a true story, waiting to publish a memoir until after loved ones are gone, drawing parents carefully and with love, and her new memoir The Magician's Daughter.    Also in this episode: -being honest with ourselves  -accepting imperfections  -knowing what you want to say   Books mentioned in this episode: -Riding the White Horse Home by Teresa Jordan Katy Grabel lives in Taos, New Mexico, where she fits right in as the daughter of the Human Cannonball. A former newspaper reporter, her stories about professional magic have been published in ZYZYYVA and New Millennium Writings. She shares her time between an old rambling adobe house in Taos with her guitar, fancy dreams and penchant for dancing in her kitchen, and a lovely book-filled casita in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. She has always seen herself as a magician’s assistant, taking notes, and believes daughters of magicians—even more than sons—must make their own way: Daughters must decide whether to be the willing assistant, command the spotlight, or turn away with a story untold. And all will be lost unless we recognize the resiliency and strength of our mothers as they lay down on the sawing table. Yet who can deny, late at night, when the dark is crowded by our failures, that every daughter of a magician must find her own magic.   Connect with Katy: www.TheMagiciansDaughter.com www.LeeGrabelMagic.com Facebook.com/KatyGMagic Instagram.com/KatyGMagic   – 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

22 Heinä 36min

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