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Sue William Silverman joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about evolving as a writer and bringing freshness to the same subject, experimenting with truncated and fractured forms, making a collection more cohesive, writing to feel centered, utilizing a recurring persona, the divided self in memoir, trusting the pieces will fall into place, giving ourselves new challenges, leaning into sensory details, writing as imagistically as possible, focusing on our obsessions, claiming our story, and her new collection Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader. Also in this episode: -using metaphor -our core narratives -casting a light on the narrator's interiority Books and resources mentioned in this episode: -Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly -flash essays at Brevitymag.com -find Sue's complete list of book recommendations at SueWilliamSilverman.com Sue William Silverman is an award-winning author of nine works of nonfiction and poetry. Her new book, "Selected Misdemeanors: Essays at the Mercy of the Reader," is a collection of flash essays. Her book on the craft of writing, "Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul," won the 2024 IPPY Silver Award. Her memoir-in essays collection, "How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences," won the gold star in Foreword Reviews INDIE Book of the Year Award and the Clara Johnson Award for Women's Literature. Other works include "Love Sick: One Woman's Journey through Sexual Addiction," made into a Lifetime TV movie; "Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You," which won the AWP Award; and "The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew." She's co-chair of the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her media appearances include The View, Anderson Cooper-360, and PBS Books. Connect with Sue: Website: www.SueWilliamSilverman.com Facebook: SueWilliamSilverman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suewilliamsilverman University of Nebraska Press: https://tinyurl.com/mwph3wvs Bookshop.org: https://tinyurl.com/56n9u9p5 Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/bsa7ay22 – 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
Ren Cedar Fuller joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about how when we love people we want their world to be bigger, raising a transgender child, having a disability, writing a lot of drafts for the right structure to snap into place, revising for months, not forcing an ending, writing about other people, including our children in our work, putting a collection together, finding themes in our work, entering contests, moving toward creativity and also toward organization, shaping a memoir-in-essays vs. an essay collection, and her award winning collection Bigger. Also in this episode: -using the Poets & Writers database to research contests and presses -studying in an MFA program -a close look at a hermit crab essay Books mentioned in this episode: -H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald -Station 11 by Emily St. John Mandel -In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado Ren Cedar Fuller's debut book, Bigger, won the 2024 Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize and was a finalist for the 2024 Iron Horse Prize and the Santa Fe Writers Project 2023 Literary Awards Program. Her creative nonfiction essays have won Under the Sun's Summer Writing Contest in 2022, been a finalist in the 2022 Terry Tempest Williams Prize for Creative Nonfiction at North American Review, and placed second in the 2022 Eunice Williams Nonfiction Prize. Ren's essays have appeared in HerStry, Hippocampus, New England Review, North American Review, and Under the Sun, and have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays. Ren is a parent facilitator at TransFamilies, an online hub for families with gender diverse children. She taught public school in California, Oregon, and Washington before founding a nonprofit early learning center in the Seattle area, where she continues teaching parent education.Ren lives in Seattle with her husband, Jason, and loves to kayak on the Salish Sea. She is currently in the M.F.A. in Writing program at Pacific University. https://www.instagram.com/ren.cedar.fuller/ https://www.rencedarfuller.com/ Book purchase: https://bookshop.org/p/books/bigger-essays/f18b41d10d1216d8?ean=9781637681084&next=t&affiliate=21790 – 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
On this encore of episode 454 of The Nurse Keith Show nursing and healthcare career podcast, Keith interviews Maria Smilios, the author of The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis. In the course of their conversation, Keith and Ms Smilios discuss how numerous Black nurses fled the Jim Crow south in search of opportunity in the non-segregated north, and how many ended up working at Sea View Hospital on Staten Island, a facility focused on the treatment — and to a large extent the warehousing — of thousands of TB patients. Listeners may be shocked to learn that the American Nurses Association barred Black nurses from being members until they gave in to pressure in 1949, despite Black nurses' impressive contributions to the development of the profession. A native of New York City, Ms. Smilios holds a Masters of Arts from Boston University in Religion & Literature where she was a Henry Luce Scholar and a Presidential Scholar. She also taught Essay and Research writing in the university's writing program. In 2007, she left Boston and moved back to New York City to teach at an all-girls high school. There she created and ran an intensive summer writing program for teens. Maria formerly worked as a development editor in the Biomedical Sciences editing books in lung diseases, pediatric and breast cancer, neurology, and ocular diseases. It was during this time when she read a line in a book that led her to discover the story of the Black Angels. Through writing the book, she has become in involved in advocating for affordable and accessible TB drugs in TB-heavy countries, working with and supporting organizations such as EndTB and Partners in Health. In the past, Ms. Smilios has written for The Guardian, American Nurse, Narratively, The Rumpus, Dame Magazine, and The Forward among others. The Black Angels is her first book. Connect with Maria Smilios and The Black Angels: MariaSmilios.com Maria on LinkedIn The Black Angels on LinkedIn Instagram X The Black Angels on Amazon ----------- Nurse Keith is a holistic career coach for nurses, professional podcaster, published author, award-winning blogger, inspiring keynote speaker, and successful nurse entrepreneur. Connect with Nurse Keith at NurseKeith.com, and on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Nurse Keith lives in beautiful Santa Fe, New Mexico with his lovely fiancée, Shada McKenzie, a highly gifted traditional astrologer and reader of the tarot. You can find Shada at The Circle and the Dot. The Nurse Keith Show is a proud member of The Health Podcast Network, one of the largest and fastest-growing collections of authoritative, high-quality podcasts taking on the tough topics in health and care with empathy, expertise, and a commitment to excellence. The podcast is adroitly produced by Rob Johnston of 520R Podcasting.
Gina Tron joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about coming of age in the aftermath of the Columbine massacre, the myth of the bullied school shooter, revenge fantasies, her advocacy work, capturing the 1990s, connecting a personal story through journalism and interviews, being a suspected school shooter, when a publisher gets cold feet, leaning into shame, not wanting to be a problem author, confronting the dark and the embarrassing, giving ourselves grace, being as honest and vulnerable as possible, trying to paint the most accurate version of ourselves, and her new memoir Suspect. Also in this episode: -having multiple editors -working with contracts -keeping lots of journals Books mentioned in this episode: -On Writing by Stephen King -The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion -It's Kind of a Funny Story -Books by Hunter S. Thompson Gina Tron is the author of several memoirs and poetry books, including her debut 2014 memoir "You're Fine,” called "vibrant, darkly funny, and courageously candid,” by Interview Magazine. She wrote reported pieces for several outlets, including The Washington Post, VICE, Politico, and The Daily Beast. The Rumpus says her newest memoir-journalism hybrid "Suspect" captures the 1990s "without sentimentality, and with a very clear lens." Gina's work advocating for rape victim-survivors has helped lead to several bills and the DOJ investigation into the NYPD's Special Victims Department. She received her MFA at Vermont College of Fine Arts and is an adjunct professor at Norwich University in Vermont. Connect with Gina: Website: www.ginatron.net Instagram: instagram.com/ginatron Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gina.tron/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ttcm45uxu7xamlv7a6tq2tuv X: https://x.com/_ginatron Get the book: https://whiskeytit.com/product/suspect/ https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/suspect-gina-tron/1146576658?ean=9781952600586 – 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
Today I talk with poet Maya Salameh about her poetry collection, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, which won the prestigious Etal Adnan Poetry Prize in 2022. The judges remarked, “Maya Salameh's poetry stood out for its inventiveness in cracking the code of life ‘between system and culture'…The turns and swerves the poems make are astonishing; the expectations they upend are remarkable… It's a testament to the aesthetic boundaries and intellectual revolt poets of Arab heritage are pushing, breaking, and reinventing.” We talk about what led her to both technology and poetry, language and story-telling, and the challenges and joys of representing life in the diaspora. In a time of war and genocide, Salameh's poetry shows how patterns of life and reproduction and desire persist. In her readings and discussions of three poems, we find a new lexicon and a new grammar.Maya Salameh is the author of Mermaid Theory (Haymarket Books, 2026), How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and served as a National Student Poet, America's highest honor for youth poets. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times, among others. She can be found @mayaslmh or mayasalameh.com.
Jocelyn Jane Cox joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about the challenges and guilt around caretaking, her childhood experience as a competitive figure skater, telling a story in the structure of a day, using the directed “you” in a book, writing about what has shaped us and played a role in the story we are trying to tell, using Post-It Notes, ordering our backstory, listmaking a low pressure way to get material on the page, as the process of adding and subtracting, exploring divisions within ourselves, developing and exploring metaphor in our narratives, and her new memoir Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice. Also in this episode: -reducing page count -relying on Beta readers -the silver tsunami Books mentioned in this episode: -Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolf -On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong -The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr -Fast Draft Your Memoir: Write Your Story in 45 Hours by Rachel Herron Jocelyn Jane Cox joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice. Jocelyn Jane Cox holds an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Sarah Lawrence College. She competed in the United States Figure Skating Championships with her older brother Brad four times (twice in pair skating and twice in ice dance). She has been coaching kids, teenagers, and adults in both skating and writing for over 25 years. Her creative nonfiction was included in the anthology Awakenings: Stories of Body Consciousness, edited by Diane Gottlieb (2023). Among other publications, her work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Newsweek, Good Men Project, WIRED, Belladonna Comedy, The Offing, HAD, Cleaver, Litro Magazine, Literal Latte, and Colorado Review. Her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She lives with her son and husband in the Hudson Valley of New York. Connect with Jocelyn: Website: https://www.jocelynjanecox.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jocelynjanecoxwriter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JocelynJaneCoxWriter BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/jocelynjanecox.bsky.social – 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
Former stand-up comedian Max Delsohn sits down with Jared to talk about how humor and detailed line-level revision show up in his work for the stage and the page. Plus, he discusses a pleasure-forward writing process, switching MFA programs after the first year, and his experiences with big-name faculty like George Saunders and Mary Karr.Max Delsohn is a third-year MFA candidate in fiction at Syracuse University. His writing appears in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, VICE, Joyland, The Rumpus, Passages North, Nat. Brut, and the essay anthology Critical Hits: Writers Playing Video Games, edited by J. Robert Lennon and Carmen Maria Machado, among other places. He has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Saltonstall Foundation for The Arts, Mineral School, and Hugo House, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize three times. His debut short story collection, CRAWL, is forthcoming in fall 2025 from Graywolf Press. Find Max on social media @maxdelsohn, and sign up for alerts to pre-order his collection via his website, www.maxdelsohn.com.This episode was requested by Amy Peltz, Sarah Blood, and Frank Turner. Thank you all for listening!MFA Writers is hosted by Jared McCormack and produced by Jared McCormack and Hanamori Skoblow. New episodes are released every two weeks. You can find more MFA Writers at MFAwriters.com.BE PART OF THE SHOWDonate to the show at Buy Me a Coffee.Leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts.Submit an episode request. If there's a program you'd like to learn more about, contact us and we'll do our very best to find a guest who can speak to their experience.Apply to be a guest on the show by filling out our application.STAY CONNECTEDTwitter: @MFAwriterspodInstagram: @MFAwriterspodcastFacebook: MFA WritersEmail: mfawriterspodcast@gmail.com
“Poetry is like one of the great loves of my life, and I think it's probably the longest relationship I'll ever have. I read a lot of poetry. I also wrote these short stories even when I was pretty young, like in second grade, and the stories kept getting shorter and shorter. My family used to go to Damascus in Syria and Lebanon every summer for three months until 2011, when the Civil War broke out in Syria. In 2015, we made our first return after that gap, and my father and I went to Lebanon for two weeks. It's the first time I felt that I belong. To the extent that was true or not, I'm obviously irrevocably American. I speak broken Arabic. I don't think I could ever live in Lebanon or Syria. But for what it was worth at 15 years old, it was a life-changing trip. I wrote my first official poem on the plane back to San Diego from that trip, and I feel that was a formative moment for me. I felt that I had a story to tell and wanted to put it to paper in the form of poetry.”In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with poet Maya Salameh about her poetry collection, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, which won the prestigious Etel Adnan Poetry Prize in 2022. The judges remarked, “Maya Salameh's poetry stood out for its inventiveness in cracking the code of life ‘between system and culture'…The turns and swerves the poems make are astonishing; the expectations they upend are remarkable… It's a testament to the aesthetic boundaries and intellectual revolt poets of Arab heritage are pushing, breaking, and reinventing.” We talk about what led her to both technology and poetry, language and story-telling, and the challenges and joys of representing life in the diaspora. In a time of war and genocide, Salameh's poetry shows how patterns of life and reproduction and desire persist. In her readings and discussions of three poems, we find a new lexicon and a new grammar.Maya Salameh is the author of MERMAID THEORY (Haymarket Books, 2026), HOW TO MAKE AN ALGORITHM IN THE MICROWAVE (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and served as a National Student Poet, America's highest honor for youth poets. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times, among others. @mayaslmhhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place
“Poetry is like one of the great loves of my life, and I think it's probably the longest relationship I'll ever have. I read a lot of poetry. I also wrote these short stories even when I was pretty young, like in second grade, and the stories kept getting shorter and shorter. My family used to go to Damascus in Syria and Lebanon every summer for three months until 2011, when the Civil War broke out in Syria. In 2015, we made our first return after that gap, and my father and I went to Lebanon for two weeks. It's the first time I felt that I belong. To the extent that was true or not, I'm obviously irrevocably American. I speak broken Arabic. I don't think I could ever live in Lebanon or Syria. But for what it was worth at 15 years old, it was a life-changing trip. I wrote my first official poem on the plane back to San Diego from that trip, and I feel that was a formative moment for me. I felt that I had a story to tell and wanted to put it to paper in the form of poetry.”In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with poet Maya Salameh about her poetry collection, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, which won the prestigious Etel Adnan Poetry Prize in 2022. The judges remarked, “Maya Salameh's poetry stood out for its inventiveness in cracking the code of life ‘between system and culture'…The turns and swerves the poems make are astonishing; the expectations they upend are remarkable… It's a testament to the aesthetic boundaries and intellectual revolt poets of Arab heritage are pushing, breaking, and reinventing.” We talk about what led her to both technology and poetry, language and story-telling, and the challenges and joys of representing life in the diaspora. In a time of war and genocide, Salameh's poetry shows how patterns of life and reproduction and desire persist. In her readings and discussions of three poems, we find a new lexicon and a new grammar.Maya Salameh is the author of MERMAID THEORY (Haymarket Books, 2026), HOW TO MAKE AN ALGORITHM IN THE MICROWAVE (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and served as a National Student Poet, America's highest honor for youth poets. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times, among others. @mayaslmhhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place
“Poetry is like one of the great loves of my life, and I think it's probably the longest relationship I'll ever have. I read a lot of poetry. I also wrote these short stories even when I was pretty young, like in second grade, and the stories kept getting shorter and shorter. My family used to go to Damascus in Syria and Lebanon every summer for three months until 2011, when the Civil War broke out in Syria. In 2015, we made our first return after that gap, and my father and I went to Lebanon for two weeks. It's the first time I felt that I belong. To the extent that was true or not, I'm obviously irrevocably American. I speak broken Arabic. I don't think I could ever live in Lebanon or Syria. But for what it was worth at 15 years old, it was a life-changing trip. I wrote my first official poem on the plane back to San Diego from that trip, and I feel that was a formative moment for me. I felt that I had a story to tell and wanted to put it to paper in the form of poetry.”In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with poet Maya Salameh about her poetry collection, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, which won the prestigious Etel Adnan Poetry Prize in 2022. The judges remarked, “Maya Salameh's poetry stood out for its inventiveness in cracking the code of life ‘between system and culture'…The turns and swerves the poems make are astonishing; the expectations they upend are remarkable… It's a testament to the aesthetic boundaries and intellectual revolt poets of Arab heritage are pushing, breaking, and reinventing.” We talk about what led her to both technology and poetry, language and story-telling, and the challenges and joys of representing life in the diaspora. In a time of war and genocide, Salameh's poetry shows how patterns of life and reproduction and desire persist. In her readings and discussions of three poems, we find a new lexicon and a new grammar.Maya Salameh is the author of MERMAID THEORY (Haymarket Books, 2026), HOW TO MAKE AN ALGORITHM IN THE MICROWAVE (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and served as a National Student Poet, America's highest honor for youth poets. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times, among others. @mayaslmhhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place
“Poetry is like one of the great loves of my life, and I think it's probably the longest relationship I'll ever have. I read a lot of poetry. I also wrote these short stories even when I was pretty young, like in second grade, and the stories kept getting shorter and shorter. My family used to go to Damascus in Syria and Lebanon every summer for three months until 2011, when the Civil War broke out in Syria. In 2015, we made our first return after that gap, and my father and I went to Lebanon for two weeks. It's the first time I felt that I belong. To the extent that was true or not, I'm obviously irrevocably American. I speak broken Arabic. I don't think I could ever live in Lebanon or Syria. But for what it was worth at 15 years old, it was a life-changing trip. I wrote my first official poem on the plane back to San Diego from that trip, and I feel that was a formative moment for me. I felt that I had a story to tell and wanted to put it to paper in the form of poetry.”In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with poet Maya Salameh about her poetry collection, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, which won the prestigious Etel Adnan Poetry Prize in 2022. The judges remarked, “Maya Salameh's poetry stood out for its inventiveness in cracking the code of life ‘between system and culture'…The turns and swerves the poems make are astonishing; the expectations they upend are remarkable… It's a testament to the aesthetic boundaries and intellectual revolt poets of Arab heritage are pushing, breaking, and reinventing.” We talk about what led her to both technology and poetry, language and story-telling, and the challenges and joys of representing life in the diaspora. In a time of war and genocide, Salameh's poetry shows how patterns of life and reproduction and desire persist. In her readings and discussions of three poems, we find a new lexicon and a new grammar.Maya Salameh is the author of MERMAID THEORY (Haymarket Books, 2026), HOW TO MAKE AN ALGORITHM IN THE MICROWAVE (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and served as a National Student Poet, America's highest honor for youth poets. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times, among others. @mayaslmhhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place
“Poetry is like one of the great loves of my life, and I think it's probably the longest relationship I'll ever have. I read a lot of poetry. I also wrote these short stories even when I was pretty young, like in second grade, and the stories kept getting shorter and shorter. My family used to go to Damascus in Syria and Lebanon every summer for three months until 2011, when the Civil War broke out in Syria. In 2015, we made our first return after that gap, and my father and I went to Lebanon for two weeks. It's the first time I felt that I belong. To the extent that was true or not, I'm obviously irrevocably American. I speak broken Arabic. I don't think I could ever live in Lebanon or Syria. But for what it was worth at 15 years old, it was a life-changing trip. I wrote my first official poem on the plane back to San Diego from that trip, and I feel that was a formative moment for me. I felt that I had a story to tell and wanted to put it to paper in the form of poetry.”In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with poet Maya Salameh about her poetry collection, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, which won the prestigious Etel Adnan Poetry Prize in 2022. The judges remarked, “Maya Salameh's poetry stood out for its inventiveness in cracking the code of life ‘between system and culture'…The turns and swerves the poems make are astonishing; the expectations they upend are remarkable… It's a testament to the aesthetic boundaries and intellectual revolt poets of Arab heritage are pushing, breaking, and reinventing.” We talk about what led her to both technology and poetry, language and story-telling, and the challenges and joys of representing life in the diaspora. In a time of war and genocide, Salameh's poetry shows how patterns of life and reproduction and desire persist. In her readings and discussions of three poems, we find a new lexicon and a new grammar.Maya Salameh is the author of MERMAID THEORY (Haymarket Books, 2026), HOW TO MAKE AN ALGORITHM IN THE MICROWAVE (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and served as a National Student Poet, America's highest honor for youth poets. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times, among others. @mayaslmhhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place
“Poetry is like one of the great loves of my life, and I think it's probably the longest relationship I'll ever have. I read a lot of poetry. I also wrote these short stories even when I was pretty young, like in second grade, and the stories kept getting shorter and shorter. My family used to go to Damascus in Syria and Lebanon every summer for three months until 2011, when the Civil War broke out in Syria. In 2015, we made our first return after that gap, and my father and I went to Lebanon for two weeks. It's the first time I felt that I belong. To the extent that was true or not, I'm obviously irrevocably American. I speak broken Arabic. I don't think I could ever live in Lebanon or Syria. But for what it was worth at 15 years old, it was a life-changing trip. I wrote my first official poem on the plane back to San Diego from that trip, and I feel that was a formative moment for me. I felt that I had a story to tell and wanted to put it to paper in the form of poetry.”In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liutalks with poet Maya Salameh about her poetry collection, How to Make an Algorithm in the Microwave, which won the prestigious Etel Adnan Poetry Prize in 2022. The judges remarked, “Maya Salameh's poetry stood out for its inventiveness in cracking the code of life ‘between system and culture'…The turns and swerves the poems make are astonishing; the expectations they upend are remarkable… It's a testament to the aesthetic boundaries and intellectual revolt poets of Arab heritage are pushing, breaking, and reinventing.” We talk about what led her to both technology and poetry, language and story-telling, and the challenges and joys of representing life in the diaspora. In a time of war and genocide, Salameh's poetry shows how patterns of life and reproduction and desire persist. In her readings and discussions of three poems, we find a new lexicon and a new grammar.Maya Salameh is the author of MERMAID THEORY (Haymarket Books, 2026), HOW TO MAKE AN ALGORITHM IN THE MICROWAVE (University of Arkansas Press, 2022), winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize, and the chapbook rooh (Paper Nautilus Press, 2020). She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sewanee Writers' Conference, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, and the President's Committee for the Arts and Humanities, and served as a National Student Poet, America's highest honor for youth poets. Her work has appeared in The Offing, Poetry, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, AGNI, Mizna, and the LA Times, among others. @mayaslmhhttps://speakingoutofplace.comBluesky @palumboliu.bsky.socialInstagram @speaking_out_of_place
Laura Mota-Juang is a Taiwanese-Brazilian shameless experimentalist from São Paulo and based in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal. Her work has been published by PRISM International, carte blanche, Augur, The Rumpus, Plenitude and elsewhere. She is the author of Light Spill (Block Party Press 2023), a chapbook inspired by Physic's imagination. In 2023, Laura was a finalist of the QWF's carte blanche Prize. She is currently painting creatures on thrifted garments at No Fiction Projects. https://www.instagram.com/imnofiction/?hl=en
Gaar Adams joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about living amongst and depicting queer and migrant communities in the Gulf states, falling in love with Arabic literature and translation, the undeniable parallels between queerness and migration, exploring subversive acts, capturing ourselves in less than flattering ways, combating self-censorship, concern with how loved ones might perceive us, protecting our memory, calibrating interiority, writing into periods of discomfort, the importance of chosen families, transcribing and organizing vast amounts of material and interviews, allowing for a multiplicity of voices, intentional interrogation of stories that aren't being told, and his new book Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East. Also in this episode: -the fallacy of the solo artist -knowing when to let go -protecting our memory Books mentioned in this episode: Notes on a Foreign Country by Suzy Hansen Sea State: A Memoir by Tabitha Lasley Maximum City by Suketu Mehta The Pink Line by Mark Gevisser Gaar Adams is the author of Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East, longlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. His reporting from the Middle East and South Asia has been featured in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg, VICE, Slate, and elsewhere. He received his Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Glasgow and currently teaches on the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Hull. He lives in London, UK. Connect with Gaar: Website: https://gaaradams.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gaar.adams/ X: https://x.com/gaaradams – 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
Notes and Links to Ursula Villarreal-Moura's Work A native of San Antonio, Texas, Ursula Villarreal-Moura is the author of two works of fiction. Her debut novel Like Happiness is a finalist for The Rudolfo Anaya Fiction Award, longlisted for The Crook's Corner Book Prize, selected as an Indie Next Pick, and was named a Best Book of 2024 by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, ELLE, and Them. Math for the Self-Crippling, her flash fiction story collection, was a small press bestseller and has been taught at numerous universities. Her stories, essays, and interviews can be found in Lit Hub, Electric Literature, Story, Alta Journal, and The Rumpus, among others. She is a longtime advocate of reading diversely and of Land Back. Buy Like Happiness Ursula's Website Book Review for Like Happiness from NPR At about 30:50, Ursula expands on “subverting” ideas of teenage rebelliousness and daughter/parent relationships At about 34:40, Pete talks about Happiness, M. Dominguez's book, as an “oasis” At about 35:15, Ursula responds to Pete's questions about Tatum “using her voice” and revisiting past events with Mateo At about 36:20, The two discuss the initial email correspondence between Tatum and Mateo At about 37:40, Ursula responds to Pete's question about At about 39:40, Pete remarks on the literary world's idiosyncrasies, and Ursula shares an amazing story about the National Book Awards and some writing industry “slipper[iness]” At about 42:05, Pete and Ursula reflect on book readings and their myriad crowds; Ursula shares a cool summary of seeing Sigrid Nuñez speak At about 44:00, Ursula expands on Pete's wondering and asking about Mateo and Tatum's early relationship and ideas of a platonic and perhaps unequal relationship At about 47:35, Ursula gives background on real-life parallels to the nunnery portrayed in the novel At about 49:00, Ursula talks about the juxtaposition of Mayumi and Valeria as reflections of Tatum's naivete and growth At about 51:10, Ursula talks about the “limbo” that governs Tatum's reaction to early indications of Mateo's possible womanizing At about 54:05, Pete wonders about Tatum being in denial and also aware that Mateo may be guilty of charges, and Ursula talks about the Kitty Genovese story and it “always staying with [her]” At about 55:15, Ursula expands on her interest in the “bystander effect” and how this phenomenon has played out with outreach for Gaza At about 56:50, Pete asks Ursula about the importance of Tatum staying in New York At about 59:00, Ursula responds to Pete's question about the pull of teachers and teaching in Tatum's life At about 1:01:30, the two discuss the phases of life and subtleties of the Mateo and Tatum relationship At about 1:02:10, Pete talks about Tatum reading Maria Luz's account of the abuse inflicted by Mateo At about 1:3:00, Pete asks Ursula about writing the phases of the relationship At about 1:06:00, Pete and Ursula talk about Tatum's writing her own account of his time with Mateo and if her “ ‘complicated feelings' ” are helping to “sanitize” Mateo's behaviors You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow Pete on IG, where he is @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where he is @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both the YouTube Channel and the podcast while you're checking out this episode. Pete is very excited to have one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. His conversation with Hannah Pittard, a recent guest, is up at Chicago Review. Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting Pete's one-man show, DIY podcast and extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content! This month's Patreon bonus episode features an exploration of flawed characters, protagonists who are too real in their actions, and horror and noir as being where so much good and realistic writing takes place. Pete has added a $1 a month tier for “Well-Wishers” and Cheerleaders of the Show. This is a passion project, a DIY operation, and Pete would love for your help in promoting what he's convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. Please tune in for Episode 297 with Cynthia Miller-Idriss, who is an opinion columnist for MSNBC and writes for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Politico, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and more. The episode airs today, Sept 16, Pub Day for Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism. Please go to ceasefiretoday.org, and/or https://act.uscpr.org/a/letaidin to call your congresspeople and demand an end to the forced famine and destruction of Gaza and the Gazan people.
Aaron has created a New Gameshow that gives Augie and Stevie more of a chance to win. It's The Wrong Show, where wrong answers gets you points to earn cash for your chosen charity. On it's debut release, Aaron will host three Wrong games between our special guest Jabbo of Proper Rumpus, Augie, and MidnightSmoke. Game 1 : Wrong Answers OnlyGame 2: Questions of Mass DestructionGame 3: Super Wrong AnswersPromos : @beerinfront @fromthemidpodProudly Sponsored by Peace, Love, & Budhttps://www.plbud.com/Shoutouts to our Patrons; Mexi, Justin B, Kristin F ,Jeramey F ,Flaose, Todd, Jim, Flaos, Bridget F., David M., Dave A, Erin S, Donna/Colin Maggs,The GateLeapers, Kacey S., William M., Crunchie, DJ Xanthus, Crystal D., Jeff S, Gina W., 8BitFree Followers on Patreon: Joáo C, Joep, Leonardo, Irsya Cahyo, Teanna Cm Lucho D.Founding Members of @OddPodsMedia https://www.patreon.com/BFYTWShow Music by @KeroseneLetter and @Mexigun Our Merch Available by contacting us.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyJG-PDn6su32Et_eSiC6RQwww.BFYTWpod.com
Bridey Thelen-Heidel joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up with a mom who was addicted to everything including dangerous men, revisiting and writing about a traumatic childhood forty plus decades later, when you have to let go to protect yourself, choosing to balance the heaviness and dysfunction in a story with pop culture and lightness, writing creatively with an audience in mind, speaking for the child you once were, being true to your past experience, learning to let go and trust editorial feedback, knowing the ending of your book as you live it, literary devices and motifs, being a hybrid author and her 3 Cs for rocking book promotion, grieving the mother she never had, and her award-winning memoir Bright Eyes. Also in this episode: -trauma bonding with music -enmeshed relationships -investing in yourself Books mentioned in this episode: -Some Bright Morning I'll Fly Away by Alice Anderson -The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls -The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr -Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott -Fearless Writing by William Kenower -Fast-Draft Your Memoir: Write Your Life Story in 45 Hours by Rachael Herron -Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert -The Creative Act by Rick Rubin Bridey Thelen-Heidel is a teacher, TEDx speaker, and cast member of Listen To Your Mother NYC. Her memoir, Bright Eyes, earned a Zibby Award “Best Story of Overcoming,” New York City Big Book Award “Distinguished Favorite,” and Runner-up from the San Francisco Writers' Festival. A fierce LGBT+ youth advocate, Bridey has been celebrated by the California Teachers' Association. She's also partnered with NAMI and numerous domestic violence and child abuse resource agencies, speaking about defeating our monsters but also learning to live without them. Connect with Bridey: Website: bridey-thelenheidel.com FB: https://www.facebook.com/brighteyesthememoir/ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/brighteyesauthor/ TikTok: @brighteyes_author TEDx Talk: ROB the Trauma: Steal Back Your Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT6rvXyjsZU&t=152s – 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
Lisa Ampleman, Managing Editor of The Cincinnati Review, offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into a literary magazine's submission review process. By using one poem and one short story recently published in the print journal as examples, she reveals what might catch an editor's eye in the submission queue, how the editing process unfolded after acceptance, and what kind of changes the authors made to their work. In the process, she sheds light on the editor-writer relationship, the collaborative art of literary editing, how The Cincinnati Review manages submissions, her own poetic inspirations, and more. This conversation was recorded in Spring 2025, and the creative pieces discussed are available to read in The Cincinnati Review. The poem “Ricky Rozay raps ‘put Molly all in her champagne, she ain't even know it'” by Raphael Jenkins was published in Issue 22.1, and Rebecca Barnard's short story, “The Theft,” appeared in Issue 21.2. Digital versions of these issues can be purchased for $5 each. Lisa Ampleman is the author of three full-length poetry collections—Mom in Space (LSU Press, 2024), Romances (LSU Press, 2020) and Full Cry (NFSPS Press, 2013)—and a chapbook, I've Been Collecting This to Tell You (Kent State University Press, 2012). Her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Colorado Review, Cortland Review, Ecotone, Georgia Review, The Rumpus, Poetry Daily, and Verse Daily, and her prose in America, Miracle Monocle, museum of americana, and Shenandoah. She is a graduate of the Ph.D. program at the University of Cincinnati. Page Count is produced by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. For full show notes and an edited transcript of this episode, visit the episode page. To get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org (put “podcast” in the subject line) or follow us on Instagram or Facebook.
Michael Jamin joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about his career as a TV writer, moving from mimicking to discovering and trusting our own voice, allowing our style to evolve, making sense of ourselves through art, imposter syndrome and feeling displeased with our work, comedy writing, performing staged readings to test out material, building a bridge between separate sections of our story, infusing comedy with drama, asking permission from children before we write about them, breathing life into relationships on the page for readers to witness, showing up generously for newer writers, getting a moment to land, and his memoir A Paper Orchestra. Also in this episode: -doing stand up -debunking writing myths -having a spouse as trusted reader Books mentioned in this episode -Books by David Sedaris -David Bowie making art video YouTube Michael Jamin is a TV writer/author. His many television credits include King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head, Just Shoot Me, Wilfred, Maron, Rules of Engagement, Brickleberry, and Tacoma FD. His debut collection of personal essays (a cross between David Sedaris and Neil Simon) was just named one of Vulture's “Best Comedy Books of 2024.” Connect with Michael: Website: michaeljamin.com Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MichaelJaminWriter/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/michaeljaminwriter/ TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@michaeljaminwriter YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelJaminWriter Threads https://www.threads.net/@michaeljaminwriter A Paper Orchestra: michaeljamin.com/book Catch Michael Jamin on tour: michaeljamin.com/upcoming Mining Your Life for Stories: (memoir writing course) https://michaeljamin.com/sp/mining-sales/ – 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
Sarah Boon joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing elements of a memoir to reveal themselves, radical acceptance of what we need as a writer and what we can feasibly accomplish with the resources we have, getting to know who we are as creatives, publishing with an academic press and the peer review process, navigating refusals, struggling with narrative arc, her experience as a woman and a scientist doing research in remote locations, breaking away from science writing to write a science memoir, living with bipolar II and anxiety, the effect of mental illness on creative process, being gentler with ourselves, pivoting from working alone to sharing a personal story, and her new memoir Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist. Also in this episode: -writing groups -living with an invisible illness -discovering the trajectory for your book Books mentioned in this episode: The Solitude of Open Spaces by Gretel Ehrlich The Only Woman in the Room Eileen Pollack Mean and Lowly Things: Survival: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo by Kate Jackson Sarah Boon, PhD, has published essays, book reviews, and author interviews for the LA Review of Books, Hippocampus, The Rumpus, Brevity Blog, Science, Nature and other outlets. Her first book, Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist, came out with University of Alberta Press in June of 2025. She lives on southern Vancouver Island with her husband and dog, and is working on her next book. Connect with Sarah: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DHjQHnRpPTG/ BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/snowhydro.bsky.social FB: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.boon.31 www.melt-down.ca www.watershednotes.ca Get the book: For Canadians: https://www.indiebookstores.ca/book/9781772127911/ For Americans: https://bookshop.org/p/books/meltdown-the-making-and-breaking-of-a-field-scientist-sarah-boon/21630061?ean=9781772127911 – 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
We're back and Ryan is boo-boo faced! Regardless, we'll soldier on and talk about Ryan's TikTok dilemma, Ryan introduces himself to a landscaper, Erik went to the Posthotel, and Ryan organized his own camping trip. For Ryan Ranks It, Ryan is (poorly) ranking superheroes!And for this week's "Ask the Talent", Ryan watches the "Fun With Ahmed" series of clips from the PlayStation 1 game WWF War Zone!Hard Mark Merch: https://hard-mark-podcast.creator-spring.com/Official Ryan Murphy Match Ranking: https://hardmarkpodcast.wordpress.com/Hard Mark Linktree: https://linktr.ee/hardmarkpodcast
Melissa Fraterrigo joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about the personal and emotional toll of being female, becoming a mother and watching her daughters navigate culture, making sense of our world through memoir and essay, discovering a softness for the younger versions of ourselves, when the fictional world doesn't hold our attention, processing different time periods, making sure there are universal truths in memoir as well as our own story, not inviting people others into the space while we're drafting, memoir as permission to explore our own life, taking the time to get to know ourselves and our process, how are we changed by writing, and her new memoir The Perils of Girlhood. Also in this episode: -Lafayette Writers Studio -sharing of ourselves -keeping our channels open Books mentioned in this episode: -Writing Past Dark by Bonnie Friedman -The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard -How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee -Spilt Milk by Courtney Zoffness -Books by Melissa Febos -Negative Space by Lilly Dancyger Melissa Fraterrigo's new memoir is The Perils of Girlhood published by the University of Nebraska Press. She is also the author of the novel Glory Days (University of Nebraska Press, 2017), which was named one of “The Best Fiction Books of 2017” by the Chicago Review of Books as well as the short story collection The Longest Pregnancy (Livingston Press, 2006). Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary journals and anthologies from storySouth and Shenandoah to Notre Dame Review, Sou'wester and The Millions. A graduate of the University of Iowa (BA) and Bowling Green State University (MFA), she teaches creative writing at Purdue University, and is also the founder and executive director of the Lafayette Writers' Studio in Lafayette, Indiana, where she offers classes on the art and craft of writing. She lives with her husband and two daughters in West Lafayette, Indiana. Connect with Melissa: Website: melissafraterrigo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melissa.fraterrigo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissafraterrigo/ Lafayette Writers' Studio: lafayettewritersstudio.com Get her book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-perils-of-girlhood-a-memoir-in-essays/6da6408eda085813 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1496242203?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_XZ0VSR4RDAFX5FBRZYB6 https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496242204/the-perils-of-girlhood/ – 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
Gail Eisnittz joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about structuring her memoir around her pursuit of answers to a lifelong medical mystery, coming to terms with her own humanness, writing about her career in animal advocacy, exposing the underbelly of the meat industry and effecting change for millions of animals, working on difficult and hard-to-sell material, not sharing a book project with friends and loved ones until it's complete, weathering a difficult submission process, allowing herself to soften emotionally, becoming more in touch with self-compassion, and her new memoir Out of Sightz: An Undercover Investigator's Fight for Animal Rights and Her Own Survival. Also in this episode: -factory farms -writing what feels right -discovering what holds the book together Books mentioned in this episode: The Happiest Man on Earth by Eddie Jaku The Choice by Dr. Eva Edith Eger The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris Gail A. Eisnitz, winner of the prestigious Albert Schweitzer Medal for outstanding achievement in animal welfare, has been working for decades to document and expose the shocking underbelly of the U.S. meat industry. She is chief investigator for the Humane Farming Association and author of the forthcoming memoir, Out of Sight: An Undercover Investigator's Fight for Animal Rights and Her Own Survival. Eisnitz and her first book, Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment inside the U.S. Meat Industry, were the driving force behind a front-page exposé in the Washington Post that resulted in an annual multimillion dollar Congressional appropriation for enforcement of the Humane Slaughter Act – the first funding ever allocated for a law that had been on the books for more than forty years. Eisnitz's work has resulted in exposés by ABC's Good Morning America, PrimeTime Live, and Dateline NBC, has been featured in such newspapers as the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Herald, Detroit Free Press, Texas Monthly, Denver Business Journal, Los Angeles Times, and U.S. News & World Report, and her interviews have been heard on more than 1,000 radio stations. In her new memoir, Eisnitz takes readers on a journey of self-discovery as she fights to document and expose scandalous animal abuse, all in the face of a rare visual processing disorder that she has grappled with since childhood. The disease, which was only identified in the scientific literature a mere ten years ago – was diagnosed after she began writing her memoir – and is revealed at the book's climax. Connect with Gail: Website: www.GailEisnitz.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gail.eisnitz Humane Farming Association: www.hfa.org – 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
Alex DiFrancesco joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about using rituals and tarot as a framework in a manuscript, Italian folk tradition as a spiritual outlet, the sometimes difficult path to publishing, being sued for defamation, finding a publisher brave enough to publish our work, writing about sexual assault, thinking in sections, using books as inspiration, complex PTSD, hiding who we are, alters, saints, and card divination, taking it slow, keeping our body in working order, making our own magic, and their new memoir Breaking the Curse. Also in this episode: -anti-SLAPP laws -seeking protection -multi-tonal books -Snakes and Acey's Print Shop: https://www.snakesandaceys.com/ Books mentioned in this episode: 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack The Part That Burns by Jeannine Ouellette Aura by Hillary Leftwich Saint Dymphna's Playbook by Hillary Leftwich Glory Guitars by Gogo Germaine I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well by James Allen Hall Alex DiFrancesco is the author of ALL CITY, PSYCHOPOMPS, TRANSMUTATION, and BREAKING THE CURSE. Their work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Electric Literature, Lit Hub, Tim House, and more. They are a 2022 recipient of the Ohio Atts Council's individual excellence awards, as well as the first transgender awards finalist in over 80 years of the Ohioana Book Awards. Connect with Alex: Website: www.alexdifrancesco.com Get the book: https://www.sevenstories.com/authors/453-alex-difrancesco?srsltid=AfmBOor0TGaH2gWxGoaqEPlv2rNOrjiALa2iEha3b-z1m0s6mFIosnja – 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
Nina B. Lichtenstein joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing to metabolize, using body parts as portals, pivoting from academic writing to memoir, discovering an authentic writer's voice, finding the right form as a neurodivergent writer, allowing various stories to cross-pollinate, opening doors with exploration, transforming shame into a shared experience, writing about the memories lodged within our bodies, being a Viking Jewess, the body as record keeper, the complex emotions around shame, moving from reactive and blameful writing to discovery, giving ourselves permission to tell our story, and her new memoir Body: My Life in Parts. Also in this episode: -leaning into literary community -publishing shorter pieces first -In a Flash literary magazine Books mentioned in this episode: Permission: The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create by Elissa Altman Bird by Bird by Anne Lammott Still Writing by Dani Shapiro Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch Nina B. Lichtenstein is a native of Oslo, Norway, and holds a PhD in French literature from UCONN and an MFA in creative nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast program. She is the founder and director of Maine Writers Studio, and the co-founder and co-editor of In a Flash Lit Mag. Her writing has appeared in various journals, magazines, and outlets, as well as in several anthologies. Her book, Sephardic Women's Voices: Out of North Africa, was published by Gaon Books in 2017, and her memoir, Body: My Life in Parts by Vine Leaves Press. She has three adult sons, and lives in Maine with her husband. Connect with Nina: Website: https://www.ninalichtenstein.com/ Maine Writers Studio: https://www.mainewritersstudio.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ninalich/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vikingjewess/ Substack: https://ninablichtenstein.substack.com/ Get the book: https://vineleavespress.myshopify.com/products/body-my-life-in-parts-by-nina-b-lichtenstein – 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
We have DJ Xanthus back for our continued Chill shows. We ask, What is something you're looking forward to?Then get into a bunch of topics, including; NFL, Work, PC, New BFYTW Game, Drop-out, Proper Rumpus, Battlefield 6, Studio Upgrades, Radio Airwaves, and more.Find DJ Xanthus at:radio-airwaves.co.ukPromos : @MarriedwTV @nodaknerdProudly Sponsored by Peace, Love, & Budhttps://www.plbud.com/Shoutouts to our Patrons; Mexi, Justin B, Kristin F ,Jeramey F ,Flaose, Todd, Jim, Flaos, Bridget F., David M., Dave A, Erin S, Donna/Colin Maggs,The GateLeapers, Kacey S., William M., Crunchie, DJ Xanthus, Crystal D., Jeff S, Gina W., 8BitFree Followers on Patreon: Joáo C, Joep, Leonardo, Irsya Cahyo, Teanna Cm Lucho D.Founding Members of @OddPodsMedia https://www.patreon.com/BFYTWShow Music by @KeroseneLetter and @Mexigun Our Merch Available by contacting us.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyJG-PDn6su32Et_eSiC6RQwww.BFYTWpod.com
In this episode of The Fake Ass Book Club, the ladies take on Netflix's steamy thriller The Hunting Wives — with a twist. Moni only made it through to episode three, while cohost Kat powered through the entire series and the original book (which she had already finished before even suggesting this week's review… not fair!). Before diving into the drama, the hosts celebrate a major milestone: reading eleven books this summer! Cue an old-school BOOK IT–style pizza party, complete with plenty of wine.
Sonita Alizada joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about surviving the Taliban in Afghanistan, speaking up against forced child marriage and racism, finding a voice through music, when we have nothing else to help us survive but art, protesting against an oppressive government, fighting for an education, the lack of meaningful action from NGOs, how much we can live through and endure, survivor's guilt, becoming the subject of a documentary, risking what you have for your dreams, and her new memoir SONITA: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom. Speak up against for marriage against racism and around, not just about hardship but about survival resistance and hope it's about celebration what Art can do when we have nothing else to use and no other resources to use to really fight for ourselves to find our voices to chase our dreams Also in this episode; -not putting everything into the book -the fatigue of advocacy work -fighting for those who don't have a voice Books mentioned in this episode: Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls On Writing by Stephen King Sonita Alizada is an Afghan rapper and activist and the author of the new book: “SONITA: My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom." Through her music and advocacy work, Sonita has campaigned for women's rights and against child marriage, partnering with notable NGOS. She has performed at the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Awards and has been recognized with prestigious honors, including TIME Magazine's Next Generation Leader, Forbes 30 Under 30, the Cannes Lions Humanitarian Award, and was included in BBC's 100 Women in 2015. Sonita, who learned English upon coming to the U.S., graduated from Bard College in 2023. In October 2025, she will be pursuing a master's degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Connect with Sonita: Website: www.sonita.net Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonitalizadeh – 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
Josh Denslow is the author of the collectionNot Everyone Is Special (7.13 Books), the novel Super Normal (Stillhouse Press), and the collection Magic Can't Save Us (UNO Press). His most recent short stories have appeared in Electric Literature's The Commuter, The Rumpus, and Short Story, Long, among others. He is the Email Marketing Manager for Bookshop.org, and he has read and edited for SmokeLong Quarterly for over a decade. He currently lives in Barcelona.
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
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
#MainstageTechnoRadio 01. CultureKind - Come Closer (Extended Mix)02. Zafrir - Moment (Extended)03. deadmau5 - Sixes (Original Mix)04. Nihil Young, Xenia Dia - Is This Real (Extended Mix)05. REZarin - Androme (Original Mix)06. Nostra - Oracle (Extended Mix)07. DEEP INSIDE (UA), Stephan Klauning, AYU (UA) - Nephilim (Extended Mix)08. Alexander Mart - Tú Yo Amor (Extended Mix)09. Th;en - Push It (Original Mix)10. RUMPUS, LIINKS, WHOWHENWHY - Neon Lights (Original Mix)11. Fape - Artemis (Original Mix)12. Atrax - Congestion (Extended Mix)
Send us a textTracklist01. CultureKind - Come Closer (Extended Mix)02. Zafrir - Moment (Extended)03. deadmau5 - Sixes (Original Mix)04. Nihil Young, Xenia Dia - Is This Real (Extended Mix)05. REZarin - Androme (Original Mix)06. Nostra - Oracle (Extended Mix)07. DEEP INSIDE (UA), Stephan Klauning, AYU (UA) - Nephilim (Extended Mix)08. Alexander Mart - Tú Yo Amor (Extended Mix)09. Th;en - Push It (Original Mix)10. RUMPUS, LIINKS, WHOWHENWHY - Neon Lights (Original Mix)11. Fape - Artemis (Original Mix)12. Atrax - Congestion (Extended Mix)
Josh Denslow is the author of the collectionNot Everyone Is Special (7.13 Books), the novel Super Normal (Stillhouse Press), and the collection Magic Can't Save Us (UNO Press). His most recent short stories have appeared in Electric Literature's The Commuter, The Rumpus, and Short Story, Long, among others. He is the Email Marketing Manager for Bookshop.org, and he has read and edited for SmokeLong Quarterly for over a decade. He currently lives in Barcelona.
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
The fellas are back to talk about their recent camping trip, Ryan blames Bothell for his boring 4th of July, we learn about Ryan's first drinking experience, and we chat about the recent death of Hulk Hogan. For Ryan Ranks It, Ryan is ranking Hulk Hogan theme songs!And for this week's "Ask the Talent", Ryan watches as the lovable but questionable character of Eugene addresses the crowd at WrestleMania 21! Hard Mark Merch: https://hard-mark-podcast.creator-spring.com/Official Ryan Murphy Match Ranking: https://hardmarkpodcast.wordpress.com/Hard Mark Linktree: https://linktr.ee/hardmarkpodcast
Shelby Hinte is the author of the debut novel Howling Women, available from Leftover Books. Hinte is the Senior Editor of Write or Die Magazine and teaches writing classes at the Writing Salon and WritingWorkshops.com. She has been a reader and intern for various independent presses and magazines including ZYZZYVA, Split/Lip Press, and No Contact. Her writing has been featured in BOMB Magazine, The Rumpus, ZYZZYVA, Hobart, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. Howling Women is her first novel. She lives in Northern California. *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch Twitter Instagram TikTok Bluesky Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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
What happens when Christian faith gets filtered through purity rings, YA fiction, and pop-punk soundtracks? In this episode, co-host Martha Tatarnic welcomes writer and journalist Joelle Kidd to discuss her new book, Jesusland. Joelle shares her experiences growing up in a conservative Christian school and how the teachings she received influenced her understanding of faith, identity, and culture. This candid conversation explores the complexities of navigating a religious upbringing marked by purity culture, shame, and the impact of Christian pop culture on personal and political landscapes. Joelle reflects on the positives and negatives of her faith journey, the importance of self-ownership, and the need for a more inclusive and compassionate Christianity. Whether you were steeped in youth group culture or always felt on the outside looking in, this episode invites reflection on the messages that shaped us, and what kind of faith might lead us forward. Topics Covered: What “Christian pop culture” really means and how it shaped Joelle's youth The collision of capitalism, conservatism, and evangelical media How shame, purity culture, and literalist theology distort identity and faith The rise of Christian influencers, tradwives, and mega-pastor empires What the church can do differently—especially for young people today Joelle Kidd is a writer, award-winning journalist, and editor who lives in a book-filled basement apartment in Tkaronto/Toronto. Her work has appeared in outlets such as The Walrus, This Magazine, Lit Hub, The Rumpus, and Xtra Magazine. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph. Jesusland is her first book. Mentioned Resources:
Welcome to Season 5, Episode 31! Our guest today is Daniel Tam-Claiborne, a writer, multimedia producer, and nonprofit director. His latest work is the novel Transplants released by Simon & Schuster. It's a coming of age story following two young women—Lin, who is Chinese and Liz, who is Chinese American. They're both navigating the journey to find their truest selves in a world that doesn't know where either of them belong. The novel is an exploration of race, love, power, and freedom that reveals how—in spite of our divided times—even our fiercest differences may bring us closer than we can imagine. Tam-Claiborne is also the author of the short story collection What Never Leaves, and his writing has appeared in a variety of publications and outlets including Michigan Quarterly Review, Catapult, Literary Hub, Off Assignment, The Rumpus, HuffPost, and elsewhere. Outside of writing, Daniel serves on the Board of Directors of Seattle City of Literature and on the Advisory Board of Off Assignment. He's a frequent speaker, moderator, and host. In our conversation, we discuss the process of writing a novel, inspiration for Transplants, feelings of belonging, the importance of COVID and lockdown as an element of Transplants, the diversity in the Asian American community, and so much more. Transplants is a well-written, moving book that we think shares several common themes that resonate with so many audiences. Tam-Claiborne doesn't shy away from deep issues that Asian Americans, Asians, and expats face as he explores belonging, identity, and more. You can see more of Daniel's work on his website Travel Breeds Content or his Instagram account @datclaiborne. If you like what we do, please share, follow, and like us in your podcast directory of choice or on Instagram @AAHistory101. For previous episodes and resources, please visit our site at https://asianamericanhistory101.libsyn.com or our links at http://castpie.com/AAHistory101. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, email us at info@aahistory101.com.
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
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
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
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
01. Shakedown, Anyma, Layton Giordani - At Night 02. DJ Zinc, Ms Dynamite - Wile Out 24 03. Dober - Believe 04. Skytech - Sinner 05. Twin Diplomacy, Jack August - Falling Into Motion 06. Chapter & Verse - 4 Minutes 07. Low Steppa - Sin Pero 08. Cassimm, Pietro, Mc Panda - Vem Pra Rave 09. Chester Young, Setou, Senyo, Lydia Lyon - Hold Me Back 10. Valy Mo, Fab Massimo - Live Wire 11. Mr. Sid, Van Snyder - In Love 12. Arkins, Castle J, Rain - Feelin The Vibe 13. Cosmic Gate, Ginchy - Battalion 14. Matroda - About To Lose It 15. Nicole Moudaber, Castion - Get Back 16. Curbi, Eleganto, Janet Livv - Like That 17. Mike Posner, Steve Aoki - I Took a Pill in Ibiza 18. Basotdel - Lose My Mind 19. Tom & Jame - Feeling That I Used To Know 20. Roland Clark, Mark Knight, James Hurr - Get Deep 21. Arty, Nu-la - Flames 22. Ownboss, Emad - Deep Cut 23. Hreez - Why We Dance 24. Leo Oliver, Dan-ros - What You Can Do 25. Wh0 - Escalator 26. Kream - Manta 27. Alok - Don't Mess With The Fire 28. Zootah, Rave Radio - Take Over 29. Tim Hox, Monogem - Vale La Pena 30. Rumpus, Cazztek - Need Your Love 31. Kvsh, Dvbbs - No No No 32. Innellea, Script - Trust 33. Ounah - Right Now 34. Prospa, Josh Baker, Rahh - You Don't Own Me 35. Tiesto, Rafael Cerato - Cool 'N Calm 36. Fedde Le Grand, DJ Tora - Here Comes The Bass 37. Edx - Desire 38. Don Diablo - Beast Mode (Knock You Out)
Dr. Stacey Hettes joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about therapeutic writing and how she crafted a memoir about childhood sexual abuse without revictimizing herself, metabolizing childhood trauma, inviting readers into our physiological response, the role of our limbic systems, deciding whether to share specifics about abuse in our manuscripts, italicizing difficult material for readers so they can decide, approaching a story of child sexual abuse in a protective way, putting therapy into our memoirs, demonstrating our character's progress in our narrative, remembering we can write beautifully about hard things, and her new memoir Dispatches from the Couch. Also in this episode: -sharing a memoir with family -the amygdala and child trauma victims -deciding whether to share specifics about abuse Books mentioned in this episode: -Bodywork by Melissa Febos -Wintering by Catherine May -Writing a Woman's Life by Caroline G. Heilbrun -Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor Professor Stacey Hettes teaches biology and neuroscience to undergraduates eager to enter the worlds of science and medicine at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC. She holds a PhD from the University of California, Riverside, and is the youngest winner to date of the Milliken Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Science. Her classes are difficult because life is difficult. They are also full of wonder, joy, and triumph because, like her students, she is a hard-working seeker. She relishes in shared struggle and shared discovery, even when the topic is long-buried child sexual abuse. Reemerging from the shadows of her past was only possible once she resolved to carry the story found in her Debut memoir, Dispatches from the Couch, into the light. Connect with Stacey: Website: https://www.staceyhettes.com/ Facebook: Stacey Hettes, https://www.facebook.com/stacey.hettes Instagram: @staceyhetteswrites, https://www.instagram.com/staceyhetteswrites/ If you'd like to know more about Wofford College: https://www.wofford.edu/ Books may be purchased from all major outlets – 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
Deb Miller joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her memoir began as a family project, being surprised to have become an author, discovering and latching onto a framework, using an “e” structure, what we recognize during the process of writing, focusing on our behavior and patterns, leaning into generational shifts, the women's movement and breaking society's norms, connecting with readers on a personal level, innovative ways to market and launch a book, promoting a message not ourselves, becoming the hero of our own story, and her new memoir Forget the Fairy Tale & Find Your Happiness. Also in this episode: -finding a marketing hook -creating new relationships and working them -living your own fairy tale Books mentioned in this episode: -Wild by Cheryl Strayed -High Hopes: A Memoir by Anne Abel Deb Miller is the author of Forget the Fairy Tale & Find Your Happiness, a memoir that explores her personal journey toward self-reliance and strength, using the evolution of Disney princesses as a metaphor for her own transformation. A passionate advocate for personal empowerment, Deb's writing encourages readers to question societal expectations and discover their own path to happiness.Having visited nearly 50 countries as a corporate executive, she is now on a mission to visit all of our national parks. A part-time marketing professor, Dr. Miller lives in Redmond, Washington, and can be found outside landscaping, walking her energetic Auggie, or hanging out with her three kids and grandchildren. Degrees: BS Purdue University, MBA University of Dayton, DBA City University of Seattle. Also a CPA. She is former VP of marketing and communication for several Fortune 500 companies. Connect with Deb: Website: https://forgetthefairytale.net/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-deb-miller-acc/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/forget_the_fairy_tale/ Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Forget-Fairytale-Find-Your-Happiness/dp/1647429226/ Simon and Schuster: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Forget-the-Fairy-Tale-and-Find-Your-Happiness/Deb-Miller/9781647429225 – 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
01. Shakedown, Anyma, Layton Giordani - At Night 02. DJ Zinc, Ms Dynamite - Wile Out 24 03. Dober - Believe 04. Skytech - Sinner 05. Twin Diplomacy, Jack August - Falling Into Motion 06. Chapter & Verse - 4 Minutes 07. Low Steppa - Sin Pero 08. Cassimm, Pietro, Mc Panda - Vem Pra Rave 09. Chester Young, Setou, Senyo, Lydia Lyon - Hold Me Back 10. Valy Mo, Fab Massimo - Live Wire 11. Mr. Sid, Van Snyder - In Love 12. Arkins, Castle J, Rain - Feelin The Vibe 13. Cosmic Gate, Ginchy - Battalion 14. Matroda - About To Lose It 15. Nicole Moudaber, Castion - Get Back 16. Curbi, Eleganto, Janet Livv - Like That 17. Mike Posner, Steve Aoki - I Took a Pill in Ibiza 18. Basotdel - Lose My Mind 19. Tom & Jame - Feeling That I Used To Know 20. Roland Clark, Mark Knight, James Hurr - Get Deep 21. Arty, Nu-la - Flames 22. Ownboss, Emad - Deep Cut 23. Hreez - Why We Dance 24. Leo Oliver, Dan-ros - What You Can Do 25. Wh0 - Escalator 26. Kream - Manta 27. Alok - Don't Mess With The Fire 28. Zootah, Rave Radio - Take Over 29. Tim Hox, Monogem - Vale La Pena 30. Rumpus, Cazztek - Need Your Love 31. Kvsh, Dvbbs - No No No 32. Innellea, Script - Trust 33. Ounah - Right Now 34. Prospa, Josh Baker, Rahh - You Don't Own Me 35. Tiesto, Rafael Cerato - Cool 'N Calm 36. Fedde Le Grand, DJ Tora - Here Comes The Bass 37. Edx - Desire 38. Don Diablo - Beast Mode (Knock You Out)
Kate Gies joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about the lasting effects of trauma on the body and mind, taking care of ourselves while writing by remembering our purpose, allowing early drafts to be angry and raw and finding meaning later, body shame and body acceptance, coming of age later in life, weaving together a medical narrative, protecting ourselves from reinjury by focusing on the larger message, writing where the energy is, finding boundaries, practicing self-compassion, and her memoir It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished: A Memoir of My Body. Also in this episode: -writing where the energy is -giving yourself time - writing in vignettes Books mentioned in this episode: Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealey The Two Kinds of Decay by Sarah Manguso Bluets by Maggie Nelson In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado The Sucide Index by Joan Wickersham Kate Gies is a writer and educator living in Toronto. She teaches creative nonfiction and expressive arts at George Brown College. Her fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have been published in The Malahat Review, The Humber Literary Review, Hobart, the Best Canadian Essays 2024 Anthology, and other places.She is the author of It Must Be Beautiful to Be Finished: A Memoir of My Body, which details her childhood medical experiences related to a missing ear. It was published by Simon & Schuster in February of 2025. Connect with Kate: Website: kategies.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katygies Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/kategies.bsky.social Get the Book: US: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/It-Must-Be-Beautiful-to-Be-Finished/Kate-Gies/9781668051054 Get the Book: Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Must-Be-Beautiful-Finished-Memoir/dp/1668051052 – 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
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