169. Boat Baby featuring Vicky Nguyen
Let’s Talk Memoir15 Touko 2025

169. Boat Baby featuring Vicky Nguyen

Vicky Nguyen joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up Vietnamese in America and what this country has meant for someone like her, writing memoir as a public figure, pivoting as a writer, not being too quick to self-edit, managing backstory to keep a memoir propulsive, having conversations with loved ones about shared family history, connecting through vulnerability, book promotion as a whole other job, exhausting every marketing channel, writing about people who don’t necessarily want to be in our memoirs, how we “rememoir” things, digging deep, and her new memoir Boat Baby.

Also in this episode:

-when family remembers things differently

-writing in our voice

-anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S.

Books mentioned in this episode:

-Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

-Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen

-The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu

-Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran

-The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

-The Writer by James Patterson

Vicky is an NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent and anchor of NBC News Daily. She reports for the Today show, Nightly News with Lester Holt and NBC News Now. She graduated as valedictorian from the University of San Francisco. Vicky lives in New York with her husband and three daughters. Her parents are always nearby.

Connect with Vicky:

Website: https://www.vickynguyen.com/

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

Get Boat Baby: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Boat-Baby/Vicky-Nguyen/9781668025567

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

Jaksot(242)

16. Voice First featuring Sonya Huber

16. Voice First featuring Sonya Huber

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 “...

15 Marras 202231min

Season 2 launching soon!

Season 2 launching soon!

Season 2 of Let’s Talk Memoir is almost here! I’m incredibly excited to bring you all of the interviews I’ve been working on. These episodes cover voice, sharing family secrets, braided memoir, nonli...

21 Loka 20222min

15. Memory, Truth, and Memoir featuring Dr. Virginia Campbell

15. Memory, Truth, and Memoir featuring Dr. Virginia Campbell

Dr. Ginger Campbell joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the nature of memory and how that affects memoir writing, the phenomenon of false memories, cognitive dissonance, the slipperiness ...

14 Kesä 202230min

14. The Divided Self in Memoir featuring Phillip Lopate

14. The Divided Self in Memoir featuring Phillip Lopate

Phillip Lopate, a central figure in the revival of the American essay joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the integral role the divided self plays in memoir, striking the balance between ...

7 Kesä 202226min

13. The Case for Generosity in Memoir featuring Judy Bolton-Fasman

13. The Case for Generosity in Memoir featuring Judy Bolton-Fasman

Judy Bolton-Fasman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation on how writing about complicated relationships with generosity creates stories and characters that stay with readers, the case for specula...

31 Touko 202230min

12. Making Your Manuscript Shimmer featuring Laura Davis

12. Making Your Manuscript Shimmer featuring Laura Davis

Laura Davis joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about creating tension, writing for ourselves versus an audience, moving from the personal to the universal, trusting your reader, and the gift o...

24 Touko 202250min

11. Yes, Your Writing Has Value featuring Paulette Perhach

11. Yes, Your Writing Has Value featuring Paulette Perhach

Paulette Perhach joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about why it’s okay to see writing as a business, balancing both grace and accountability in our work, the importance of a writing community...

17 Touko 202228min

10. The Merits of Writing About Trauma with Restraint featuring Kelly Sundberg

10. The Merits of Writing About Trauma with Restraint featuring Kelly Sundberg

Kelly Sundberg joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about sharing her story of domestic violence with the world, depicting trauma and triggering events in memoir, the alchemical value of PTSD, n...

10 Touko 202230min

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