118. Memoir Manifestos and Taking Back Our Power featuring Jessica Buchanan

118. Memoir Manifestos and Taking Back Our Power featuring Jessica Buchanan

Jessica Buchanan joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her capture by pirates in Somalia in 2011 and how her life’s trajectory was irrevocably changed, taking back power, holding space for our stories, showing up for one another as writers, demystifying the publishing process, celebrating our wins, book branding and building platform, not being paralyzed by perfection, her boutique nontraditional press Soul Speak Press and her anthology series From Deserts to Mountaintops.

Also in this episode:

-how we have to hustle

-trusting our intuition

-being of service

Books mentioned in this episode:

Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Books by Anne Lamott

On October 25, 2011, while on a routine field mission in Somalia, working as the Education Advisor for her non-governmental organization, Jessica was abducted at gunpoint and held for ransom by a group of Somali pirates for 93 days. Forced to live outdoors in deplorable conditions, starved, and terrorized by more than two dozen gangsters, Jessica’s health steadily deteriorated until, by order of President Obama, she was rescued by the elite SEAL Team VI on January 25, 2012.

Jessica’s ordeal is detailed in her New York Times bestselling book, Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six. Jessica has been named one of the ‘150 Women Who will Shake the World’ by Newsweek, and her story was the most highly viewed 60 Minutes episode to air, to-date. Jessica is a highly sought-after inspirational speaker and her TEDx Pearl Street

talk, ‘Change is Your Proof of Life’ has been the foundation for which she travels the world, inspiring audiences to access their resilience by identifying their own autonomy and choice in the middle of their own life changing event.

Jessica is the founder of Soul Speak Press where she supports women who are ready to share their stories through Memoirs – books that are one part memoir, one part self-help, and one part inspiration. Jessica’s upcoming anthology project, Deserts to Mountaintops: Pilgrimage of Motherhood, is currently in development and scheduled for publication in early 2025.

Jessica works as a family liaison volunteer for the non-profit organization, Hostage US, supporting former hostages and their families during captivity and eventual return, and also continues to serve as a dedicated Ambassador for the Navy SEAL Foundation, which works to support families of fallen SEALs.

Connect with Jessica:

Official Website: https://www.jessbuchanan.com/

Publishing Website: https://www.soulspeakpress.com/

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

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-buchanan-05ba7364/

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

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

Episoder(243)

238. Being Clear on Why We’re Showing Up to Tell This Story Now featuring Jill Christman

238. Being Clear on Why We’re Showing Up to Tell This Story Now featuring Jill Christman

Jill Christman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about contextualizing a memoir in a post-Roe world, what it means to make a choice as mothers, ending a pregnancy, knowing you will write abou...

28 Apr 52min

237. Creating Immediacy in Our Narratives Through Contained Timeframes and Present Tense featuring Mimi Nichter

237. Creating Immediacy in Our Narratives Through Contained Timeframes and Present Tense featuring Mimi Nichter

Mimi Nichter joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about being hijacked on a plane when she was twenty years old in the first incident of international terrorism, how we can be socialized into si...

21 Apr 37min

236. Listening to Our Own Language and Going Where We Need to Go featuring Rachel Tzvia Back

236. Listening to Our Own Language and Going Where We Need to Go featuring Rachel Tzvia Back

Rachel Tzvia Back joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about living with depression, losing a sister, when a mother is emotionally and psychologically absent, how myths can be cloaks, listening ...

16 Apr 38min

235. Searching for a Universal Truth in Your Memoir featuring Julie Scolnik

235. Searching for a Universal Truth in Your Memoir featuring Julie Scolnik

Julie Scolnick joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about falling madly in love with a married Frenchman when she was 20 years old and living in Paris studying music, working our way back from a...

14 Apr 30min

234. Knowing When a Structure has Clicked in Place featuring Stephanie Weaver

234. Knowing When a Structure has Clicked in Place featuring Stephanie Weaver

Stephanie Weaver MPH joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about family estrangement, gaslighting, her recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, chronic illness, not wanting a book to be abou...

9 Apr 36min

233. Revealing the Divisions and Truths Within Us featuring Nikkya Hargrove

233. Revealing the Divisions and Truths Within Us featuring Nikkya Hargrove

Nikkya Hargrove joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the effects of incarceration on the family system, growing up lost and unsure who her family was, accepting the responsibility of becom...

7 Apr 31min

232. Self-Compassion and Recognizing the Illusion of Control featuring Amanda McCracken

232. Self-Compassion and Recognizing the Illusion of Control featuring Amanda McCracken

Amanda McCracken joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about what happens when you’re hopelessly, stubbornly in love with longing, fear of intimacy, the idea of falling in love vs. being in love,...

31 Mar 34min

231. Recovering and Reclaiming the Teenage Version of Ourselves in Memoir featuring Wendy C. Ortiz

231. Recovering and Reclaiming the Teenage Version of Ourselves in Memoir featuring Wendy C. Ortiz

Wendy C. Ortiz joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the English teacher who preyed on her when she was thirteen, writing about the person we are now when writing about our past, placing th...

24 Mar 35min

Populært innen Fakta

fastlegen
dine-penger-pengeradet
relasjonspodden-med-dora-thorhallsdottir-kjersti-idem
mikkels-paskenotter
foreldreradet
rss-bisarr-historie
treningspodden
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
jakt-og-fiskepodden
rss-sunn-okonomi
ukast
hverdagspsyken
lederskap-nhhs-podkast-om-ledelse
sinnsyn
rss-bak-luftfarten
takk-og-lov-med-anine-kierulf
fryktlos
rss-kunsten-a-leve
rss-kull
gravid-uke-for-uke