124. Excavating a Sister’s Story featuring Deborah Kasdan

124. Excavating a Sister’s Story featuring Deborah Kasdan

Deborah Kasdan joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her older sister’s schizophrenia diagnosis, the decision to commit a child, family dynamics and epigenetics, what it is to be marginalized and hidden away, writing expressively, thematic and chronological decisions, digging further and digging deeper, the conflict alive inside us, landing on a book cover, finishing her sister’s story, guilt about our loved ones and giving them a voice in our work, and her memoir Roll Back the World.

Also mentioned in this episode:

-sibling reaction to our memoirs

-experimenting and trying again

-writing the scenes that press themselves upon us

Books mentioned in this episode:

-Is There No Place for Me by Susan Sheehan

-The Eden Express by Mark Vonnegut

-The Center Cannot Hold by Elyn R. Saks

-The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok

-The Soloist by Steve Lopez

Chosen as one of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Indie books of 2023, and a Foreword Reviews finalist, Deborah Kasdan’s memoir shows the impact of serious mental illness on her late sister Rachel, as well as on herself and their entire family. It also reveals the healing power of writing. Kasdan had a 35-year career writing about business and technology before retiring from corporate work and uncovering her creative side. Kasdan grew up in the Midwest and now lives in Norwalk, Connecticut with her husband. In addition to writing and making family history come alive, her times of greatest joy occur when she is reading, swimming or visiting with her four grandchildren.

Connect with Deborah:

Website: www.deborahkasdan.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debkasdan

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/debkasdan

X: https://x.com/debkasdan

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

Jaksot(241)

77. Following Creative Hunches and the Magic of Revision featuring Joni B. Cole

77. Following Creative Hunches and the Magic of Revision featuring Joni B. Cole

Joni B. Cole joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about following our creative hunches, what to look for in workshop groups and writing teachers, the power of positive reinforcement, the magic o...

22 Helmi 202443min

76. How to Capture a Feeling: the Specific and Particular featuring Jane Wong

76. How to Capture a Feeling: the Specific and Particular featuring Jane Wong

Jane Wong joins Let’s Talk memoir for a conversation about the challenge of reflection in memoir, writing that teems with the specific and particular, capturing the experience of being a chinese ameri...

20 Helmi 202450min

75. Working with Developmental Editors and Book and Proposal Coaches featuring Lisa Niver

75. Working with Developmental Editors and Book and Proposal Coaches featuring Lisa Niver

Lisa Niver joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about disagreeing and then agreeing with your agent, her career in travel, accountability groups, working with developmental editors and book and ...

15 Helmi 202439min

74. Depicting Complex Relationships and Calibrating Metaphor in Memoir featuring Rosa Lowinger

74. Depicting Complex Relationships and Calibrating Metaphor in Memoir featuring Rosa Lowinger

Rosa Lowinger joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up in Cuba, her storied career in art restoration, taking a closer look at the complicated and evolving relationship she’s had wi...

13 Helmi 202452min

73. Putting Child Loss into Words featuring Eileen Vorbach Collins

73. Putting Child Loss into Words featuring Eileen Vorbach Collins

Eileen Vorbach Collins joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing her young daughter to suicide and the essays she wrote as she contended with her loss, the role of reflection, change, an...

6 Helmi 202434min

72. The Leaving Season featuring Kelly McMasters

72. The Leaving Season featuring Kelly McMasters

Kelly McMasters joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the elusiveness of “home”, creating space for our children in our art, questions as writing tools, letting go of what we thought our li...

30 Tammi 202443min

71. Memoir on Stage featuring Jamie Brickhouse

71. Memoir on Stage featuring Jamie Brickhouse

Jamie Brickhouse joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing and teaching memoir, performing and telling stories, alcoholism and life as a sober artist, being a 5-time Moth StorySLAM winn...

23 Tammi 202440min

70. Saying Goodbye and Why We Write About the Hard Things featuring Morgan Baker

70. Saying Goodbye and Why We Write About the Hard Things featuring Morgan Baker

Morgan Baker joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about motherhood and identity, giving back to ourselves and creating boundaries, confronting depression, worrying about our memoir’s structure l...

18 Tammi 202434min

Suosittua kategoriassa Koulutus

rss-murhan-anatomia
voi-hyvin-meditaatiot-2
psykopodiaa-podcast
adhd-podi
psykologia
rss-rahamania
rss-narsisti
rss-duodecim-lehti
rss-valo-minussa-2
rss-vapaudu-voimaasi
kesken
rss-liian-kuuma-peruna
rss-tietoinen-yhteys-podcast-2
rss-psykalab
rss-niinku-asia-on
rss-monarch-talk-with-alexandra-alexis
rss-luonnollinen-synnytys-podcast
rss-rentotapaus
rss-lasnaolon-hetkia-mindfulness-tutuksi
rss-arkea-ja-aurinkoa-podcast-espanjasta