23. The Acceptance of Imperfection featuring Kathy Curto

Kathy Curto joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about accepting imperfection in our writing, the effect of time and distance in our work, finding beauty even in the painful, what she’s learned through teaching writing to a broad range of students, and her memoir in micro essays Not for Nothing: Glimpse into a Jersey Girlhood.

Also in this episode:

-the importance of a writing community no matter how small

-the potency of the flash form

-how voice is always changing

Books mentioned in this episode:

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff

Heavy by Kiese Laymon

Ordinary Girls by Jaquira Diaz

The memoirs and poetry of Mary Karr

Kathy Curto teaches at Sarah Lawrence College/The Writing Institute, Montclair State University and The Writers Circle as well as several nonprofit organizations and community centers in the metropolitan area. She is the author of Not for Nothing-Glimpses into a Jersey Girlhood. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, on NPR, in the anthology Listen to Your Mother: What She Said Then, What We’re Saying Now, and in Oh, Reader, Barrelhouse, The Mom Egg Review, Drift and Talking Writing, among others. Kathy pens a Write or Die Tribe biweekly column, Words on the Street, Revisited, where she explores everyday language and the writing practice. Her micro-memoir, “Still Cooking Side by Side” considered a “Modern Love in miniature” by The New York Times, was included in The Best of Tiny Love Stories in August 2021. Kathy lives with her family in the Hudson Valley. Please visit: www.kathycurto.com.

Connect with Kathy Curto:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathy.curto/

Facebook: Kathy Curto-Writer https://www.facebook.com/kathy.curto26

Website: https://www.kathycurto.com/

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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/

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