Podcasts about Rumpus

Marty Ross-Dolen joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation discovering the story while writing, inviting the speculative and magical elements into a narrative, rediscovering lost relatives, advocating for our vision and for our books, scaffolding fragmented forms, being raised by a mother in protracted mourning, incorporating letters, photographs, and erasure poetry, when people tell you what your book is supposed to be, living with an inherited sense of grief, unspoken family pacts, when structure is a surprise, and her new memoir Always There, Always Gone: A Daughter's Search for Truth.   Also in this episode:  --being raised in silence around a tragedy -telling 3 stories at once -memoir as erasure   Books mentioned in this episode: -Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas -Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn -Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston -Disconto for My Father by Harrison Kandelaria Fletcher -Fearless Confessions by Sue William SIlverman   Marty Ross-Dolen is a graduate of Wellesley College and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a retired child and adolescent psychiatrist. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Prior to her time at VCFA, she participated in graduate-level workshops at The Ohio State University. Her essays have appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Redivider, Lilith, Willow Review, and the Brevity Blog, among others. Her essay entitled “Diphtheria” was named a notable essay in The Best American Essays series. She teaches writing and lives in Columbus, Ohio. Connect with Marty: Website: www.martyrossdolen.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martyrossdolen Get the book: https://a.co/d/5HtWU4s https://www.thurberhouse.org/adult-writers-studio – 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

Alyson Shelton and Lynn Shattuck join Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing about sibling loss, creating an essay anthology as means to advocate for grief, taking care of ourselves while crafting work about loss, helping people tell their stories, laughter and making space for the rest of our lives, coping with rejection, creating a mosaic with essays, feeling empowered, self-acceptance building community, independently publishing as an act of defiance, and their new anthology The Loss of a Lifetime: Advice from Grieving Siblings.   Also in this episode:  -owning out stories -rejecting shame -how no can send us in new directions   Books mentioned in this episode: -Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Viktor Hansen and Amy Newmark -Encyclopedia of an Ordinary LIfe by Amy Krause Rosenthal -The Heart and Other Monsters by Rose Anderon Always a Sibling by Annie Sklaver Orenstein ALYSON SHELTON is an award winning screenwriter and essayist. Her writing is widely published at outlets including The New York Times, Ms. and The Rumpus. She's anthologized in Comics Lit Vol. 1 (Accomplishing Innovation Press), No Contact: 28 Writers on Family Estrangement (Catapult 2026), Root Cause: Stories of Health, Harm and Reclaiming Our Humanity (Editor: Jeannine Ouellette) and The Loss of a Lifetime: Advice from Grieving Siblings (Contributor and Co-Editor). She's best known for her Instagram Live series inspired by George Ella Lyon's poem, Where I'm From where she's hosted close to 200 writers. The poem also provides the spine for her memoir in progress.@byalysonshelton on Instagram, Threads, Youtube. www.alysonshelton.com   Lynn has been publishing essays on the topic of sibling loss for more than a decade. She was a paid columnist at Elephant Journal for ten years; several of her essays on the topic of grief and sibling loss have gone viral. Lynn co-founded the website lossofalifetime.com, a hub of resources for those who've experienced sibling loss. She also co-edited the essay collection, The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss and Hope; the book is expected to be available in June, 2025 https://www.instagram.com/lynn_shattuck/   Connect with Alyson: Alyson Shelton on The Body Myth podcast: https://ronitplank.com/2022/03/22/the-body-myth-from-childhood-gymnastics-to-puberty-to-motherhood-a-body-judgment-story-ft-alyson-shelton/ Website: www.alysonshelton.com   Connect with Lynn: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynn_shattuck/   Get the book: https://www.lossofalifetime.com/book www.lossofalifetime.com – 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

FLOYD WEST22 brings the 12th chapter of LIP BITER SOUNDS — your sonic passport to the world of cutting-edge electronic music. This mix begins in a dreamlike state with RÜFÜS DU SOL's Innerbloom — reimagined by RUMPUS into a hypnotic, bass-driven opener — and wastes no time diving into darker, grittier territory. Michael Bibi's Lil Freaky and MK's Dior bring undeniable heat, while Mau P's People Talk People Sing delivers cerebral vibes with a dancefloor twist. Along the way, ARTBAT and MORTEN inject epic melodic tension, and Glass Petals, Lesgo, and ESSEL elevate the groove with club-ready thump. Midway through, a surprise remix of AC/DC's Thunderstruck flips the script with a thunderous blend of rock and rave energy, setting the tone for the second half — where things get dirtier, weirder, and harder. Expect curveballs, underground bombs, and unforgettable flips that blur the lines between genres. This is not just a podcast. It's a statement — an expertly curated ride through house, tech, and festival-grade edits, designed for the dancefloor but made to be felt anywhere. ⚡️Like the Show? Click the [Repost] ↻ button so more people can hear it!

Maureen Stanton joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about her writing beginnings in fiction and using the scenic and immersive to move readers, falling in love with creative nonfiction, revisiting and recreating a love story, discovering the question behind her book, facing the blank page, bad first drafts, writing an illness narrative, placing an essay in Modern Love, authenticity on the page, the long winding path to publishing, not thinking your book will ever get published, working on multiple projects while querying, how love evolves, and her new memoir The Murmur of Everything Moving.   Also in this episode: -the fog of grief -killing our darlings -submitting to writing contests   Books mentioned in this episode: -Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott -Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt -The Liar's Club by Mary Karr -This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff  -Argonauts by Maggie Nelson -Barbarian Days by William Finnegan   Maureen Stanton is the author of The Murmur of Everything Moving: A Memoir, winner of the Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence; Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood, winner of the Maine Literary Award for memoir and a People Magazine "Best Books Pick"; and Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: An Insider's Look at the World of Flea Markets, Antiques, and Collecting, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award in nonfiction and a Parade Magazine "12 Great Summer Books" selection. Her nonfiction has been widely published, including in The New York Times, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Longreads, New England Review, Florida Review, River Teeth, The Sun and many others. Her essays have received the Iowa Review prize, The Sewanee Review prize, Pushcart Prizes, the American Literary Review award, and the Thomas J. Hruska award from Passages North. She's been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, the MacDowell Colony, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and lives in Maine.    Connect with Maureen: Website: https://www.maureenstantonwriter.com LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/maureenstanton41 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maureenstanton41 Threads: https://www.threads.com/@maureenstanton41 LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/maureen-stanton-6693ab11  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maureen.p.stanton Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/maureenstanton.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

Rob Franklin, Great Black Hope (Summit Books, 2025) Born and raised in Atlanta, Rob Franklin is a writer of fiction, criticism, and poetry, and a cofounder of Art for Black Lives. A Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and finalist for the New England Review Emerging Writer prize, he has published work in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Rumpus among others. Franklin holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from NYU's Creative Writing program. He lives in Brooklyn and teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts. Book Recommendations: Katie Kitamura, Audition Josh Duboff, Early Thirties Alexis Okeowo, Blessings and Disasters Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob Franklin, Great Black Hope (Summit Books, 2025) Born and raised in Atlanta, Rob Franklin is a writer of fiction, criticism, and poetry, and a cofounder of Art for Black Lives. A Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and finalist for the New England Review Emerging Writer prize, he has published work in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Rumpus among others. Franklin holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from NYU's Creative Writing program. He lives in Brooklyn and teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts. Book Recommendations: Katie Kitamura, Audition Josh Duboff, Early Thirties Alexis Okeowo, Blessings and Disasters Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

Rob Franklin, Great Black Hope (Summit Books, 2025) Born and raised in Atlanta, Rob Franklin is a writer of fiction, criticism, and poetry, and a cofounder of Art for Black Lives. A Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and finalist for the New England Review Emerging Writer prize, he has published work in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Rumpus among others. Franklin holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from NYU's Creative Writing program. He lives in Brooklyn and teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts. Book Recommendations: Katie Kitamura, Audition Josh Duboff, Early Thirties Alexis Okeowo, Blessings and Disasters Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Rob Franklin, Great Black Hope (Summit Books, 2025) Born and raised in Atlanta, Rob Franklin is a writer of fiction, criticism, and poetry, and a cofounder of Art for Black Lives. A Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and finalist for the New England Review Emerging Writer prize, he has published work in New England Review, Prairie Schooner, and The Rumpus among others. Franklin holds a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from NYU's Creative Writing program. He lives in Brooklyn and teaches writing at the School of Visual Arts. Book Recommendations: Katie Kitamura, Audition Josh Duboff, Early Thirties Alexis Okeowo, Blessings and Disasters Chris Holmes is Chair of Literatures in English and Professor at Ithaca College. He writes criticism on contemporary global literatures. His book, Kazuo Ishiguro Against World Literature, is published with Bloomsbury Publishing. He is the co-director of The New Voices Festival, a celebration of work in poetry, prose, and playwriting by up-and-coming young writers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Toronto author Teri Vlassopoulos, author of Living Expenses—a timely tale of reproductive health in an age of both technological and geographical distance. The novel has roots in Teri's own struggle with infertility. More about Living Expenses:As the children of a single mother who immigrated from the Philippines, Laura and Claire have always been exceptionally close. That is, until Claire moves to San Francisco for a startup job in Silicon Valley while Laura and her husband remain in Toronto and decide to start a family. Enter the slow, hopeful, devastating process of fertility treatments. While Laura prepares for IVF, Claire has her own encounter with the fertility industry. Living Expenses interrogates the strain that can accompany even the strongest of relationships, and captures the inevitable creep of technology into all facets of its characters' lives, from communication to reproduction. “Vlassopoulos captures the seemingly endless heartbreak, bone-deep frustration, and often invisible emotional strain of infertility with both a realistic and empathetic eye. Living Expenses takes us on Laura's complex journey and illuminates a rarely discussed yet all too common grief, doing so with humanity and heart. A thoughtful, compelling read about the challenges and benefits of holding onto hope.”—Stacey May Fowles, author of Baseball Life Advice About Vlassopoulos: TERI VLASSOPOULOS has published two books, a collection of short stories, Bats or Swallows (Invisible Publishing), which was nominated for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and a novel, Escape Plans (Invisible Publishing). Her fiction and non-fiction has been published in Room Magazine, Catapult, The Millions, The Rumpus, The Quarantine Review, Open Book, and more. She also publishes a regular Substack newsletter, Bibliographic. She lives in Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Toronto author Teri Vlassopoulos, author of Living Expenses—a timely tale of reproductive health in an age of both technological and geographical distance. The novel has roots in Teri's own struggle with infertility. More about Living Expenses:As the children of a single mother who immigrated from the Philippines, Laura and Claire have always been exceptionally close. That is, until Claire moves to San Francisco for a startup job in Silicon Valley while Laura and her husband remain in Toronto and decide to start a family. Enter the slow, hopeful, devastating process of fertility treatments. While Laura prepares for IVF, Claire has her own encounter with the fertility industry. Living Expenses interrogates the strain that can accompany even the strongest of relationships, and captures the inevitable creep of technology into all facets of its characters' lives, from communication to reproduction. “Vlassopoulos captures the seemingly endless heartbreak, bone-deep frustration, and often invisible emotional strain of infertility with both a realistic and empathetic eye. Living Expenses takes us on Laura's complex journey and illuminates a rarely discussed yet all too common grief, doing so with humanity and heart. A thoughtful, compelling read about the challenges and benefits of holding onto hope.”—Stacey May Fowles, author of Baseball Life Advice About Vlassopoulos: TERI VLASSOPOULOS has published two books, a collection of short stories, Bats or Swallows (Invisible Publishing), which was nominated for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, and a novel, Escape Plans (Invisible Publishing). Her fiction and non-fiction has been published in Room Magazine, Catapult, The Millions, The Rumpus, The Quarantine Review, Open Book, and more. She also publishes a regular Substack newsletter, Bibliographic. She lives in Toronto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literature

On the finer practice of friendship, tending to ourselves in order to be present, and learning what it means to be a good friend.  (0:00) - Introduction and Author Background (2:48) - Discussion on the Book's Title and Theme (5:02) - Reflections on Meredith's Role in the Book (7:56) - Navigating Joy and Sorrow in Friendships (12:45) - Exploring Spirituality and Recovery (16:13) - Healing and Overcoming Envy (21:05) - Supporting a Friend Through Illness (26:39) - Maintaining Friendships After Loss Christie Tate is a Chicago-based writer and essayist. She has been published in The New York Times (Modern Love), The Rumpus, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Eastern Iowa Review and elsewhere. Kiese Laymon selected her essay, Promised Lands, as the winner of the New Ohio Review's nonfiction contest, which was published Fall 2019. In this episode, we discuss B.F.F., her latest book, which strikes a deep chord of love and understanding.

Kurt Baumeister - Twighlight of the Gods: A Novel. This is episode 763 of Teaching Learning Leading K12, an audio podcast.  Kurt Baumeister's writing has appeared in Salon, Guernica, Electric Literature, Rain Taxi, The Brooklyn Rail, The Rumpus, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Nervous Breakdown, The Weeklings, and other outlets. An acquisitions editor with 7.13 Books, Baumeister holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College, and is a member of The National Book Critics Circle and The Authors Guild. Twilight of the Gods is his second novel. Our focus today is Kurt's new novel - Twilight of the Gods. Great conversation! Thanks for listening! Thanks for sharing! Before you go... You could help support this podcast by Buying Me A Coffee. Not really buying me something to drink but clicking on the link on my home page at https://stevenmiletto.com for Buy Me a Coffee or by going to this link Buy Me a Coffee. This would allow you to donate to help the show address the costs associated with producing the podcast from upgrading gear to the fees associated with producing the show. That would be cool. Thanks for thinking about it.  Hey, I've got another favor...could you share the podcast with one of your friends, colleagues, and family members? Hmmm? What do you think? Thank you! You are AWESOME! Connect & Learn More: kurtbaumeister@gmail.com https://kurtbaumeister.com https://www.instagram.com/kurt.baumeister/ https://www.facebook.com/kurt.baumeister https://bsky.app/profile/kurtbaumeister.bsky.social https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kurt-Baumeister/author/B01MR6A1JP?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1739384666&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Baumeister Length - 50:42

Leah Paulos of Press Shop PR joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about 2 things writers can do right now to help launch their book successfully, how to find your targeted readers and effectively reach them through media, the dedicated focus required to promote a book,tapping into your storytelling chops to help you with marketing, tools for positioning your book with media and journalists, the lead time we need to promote our books and when to pitch, selling journalists on covering your book, finding the story and the audience for your book, the cost of publicity, your job as your own publicist, being proactive, and the classes she offers at Book Publicity School.   Also in this episode: -using spreadsheets -building a media contact list -working with in-house publicity teams   Books mentioned in this episode: -The Sounds of Life by Karen Bakker -The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korellitz -Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall   Leah Paulos is the Founder and Director of Publicity at Press Shop PR and Book Publicity School, and has worked at the intersection of books and media for over 25 years. Twice named a top PR firm by the Observer, Press Shop PR has worked on many notable books and #1 bestsellers including MARCH by Rep. John Lewis and ON TYRANNY by Timothy Snyder, as well as books by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Neil deGrasse Tyson, James Kirchick, and Pulitzer-finalists Samuel Freedman and Louise Aronson. Leah has spoken on book publicity at Columbia School of Journalism, CUNY Graduate Center, and as part of her regular workshop series, Book Publicity for Literary Agents.  Book publicity 101 Leah began her career as a magazine editor at a NYC-focused glossy magazine in 1998. She later worked as an editor at Conde Nast and as a freelance writer for dozens of national magazines. She made the shift to book publicity in 2006 and launched Press Shop in 2012. She graduated from Cornell University and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.   bookpublicityschool.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahpaulos/ https://www.facebook.com/PressShopPR/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090936998502 https://x.com/PressShopPR   www.PressShopPR.com www.BookPublicitySchool.com – 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

It is quite interesting to see women lead the charge in revolutionizing regenerative agriculture, which is a male-dominated space. They are bringing a brand-new approach to raising awareness about social justice, gaining mostly the attention and interest of youth. Corinna Bellizzi chats with Stephanie Anderson, an award-winning journalist, who utilizes storytelling to bring regenerative farming practices to the mainstream. She explains why diversity is needed to minimize soil disturbance, make nutritious food easily accessible to the public, and empower local farmers and businesses. Stephanie also discusses how to go through the challenges of transitioning to regenerative agriculture, creating a better perception of profit, and voting for pro-environment politicians.About Guest:Stephanie Anderson is the author of From the Ground Up: The Women Revolutionizing Regenerative Agriculture (The New Press, 2024). Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, TriQuarterly, Flyway, Hotel Amerika, Terrain.org, The Chronicle Review, Sweet and others. Stephanie is the 2020 winner of the Margolis Award for social justice journalism and a co-editor for the University of Nebraska Press “Our Regenerative Future” book series. Her debut nonfiction book, titled One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl's Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture, won a 2020 Nautilus Award and 2019 Midwest Book Award. Stephanie holds an MFA from Florida Atlantic University, where she serves as Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction.Guest Website: https://StephanieAndersonWriting.comGuest Social: https://instagram.com/stephanieandersonwritinghttps://facebook.com/stephanieandersonwritingShow Notes: Raw audio00:03:27 - A Farm Girl's Journey Into Regenerative Agriculture00:06:34 - Achieving Diversity In Regeneration00:11:46 - How Women Embody Regeneration Beyond Soil00:19:00 - How To Finance Regenerative Agriculture Efforts00:22:28 - Using Storytelling To Convey The Message Better00:26:47 - Common Threads Among Women Regenerative Leaders00:30:50 - What Capital Is Left For Regenerative Farming00:35:02 - Greater Women Participation In Agriculture00:39:18 - Changing Perspectives On Profit And Supporting Local Businesses00:49:46 - Breaking Down A Big Problem Into Smaller Parts00:51:59 - Getting Into The Justice Ecology00:53:33 - Voting For Pro-Environment Individuals00:57:04 - Stephanie's Next Projects00:59:11 - Episode Wrap-up And Closing WordsJOIN OUR CIRCLE. BUILD A GREENER FUTURE:

Jill Damatac joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up undocumented in the US and how she ultimately self-deported, weaving Filipino food, mythology, history, and culture in her narrative, opting for a hybridized memoir to mitigate the fear of talking about her experience, American exceptionalism, internalized doubt and unworthiness, contextualizing the self within a broader set of stories, when fear is a defining container for our lives, being willing to announce our lived experience via memoir, wanting to shrug off the yoke of shame, offering the reader a kaleidoscopic view, and her new memoir Dirty Kitchen A Memoir of Food and Family.   Also in this episode:  -sifting through hybridized aspects of a memoir -knowing where to cut and where to expand  -shame around trauma writing   Books mentioned in this episode: Another Country by James Baldwin Bodywork by Melissa Febos How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr   Jill Damatac is a writer and filmmaker born in the Philippines, raised in the US, and now a UK citizen, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her film and photography work has been featured on the BBC and in Time, and at film festivals worldwide; her short documentary film Blood and Ink (Dugo at Tinta), about the Indigenous Filipino tattooist Apo Whang Od, was an official selection at the Academy Award–qualifying DOC NYC and won Best Documentary at Ireland's Kerry Film Festival. Jill holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Documentary Film from the University of the Arts London.    Connect with Jill: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jilldamatac/ Website: https://www.jilldamatac.com/ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dirty-Kitchen/Jill-Damatac/9781668084632   – 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

Christopher Honey reads his poem "The Pause," and Sue Proffitt reads her poems "The moor" and "Eating with the dead." Christopher Honey's work has appeared in numerous publications including U.S. Catholic, America, Poetry South, and The Rumpus. He earned his MFA from the University of Saint Thomas, Houston, and lives and works in Washington D.C. with his wife and daughter.Sue Proffitt lives by the coast in South Devon, on the edge of a cliff in a coastguard cottage. She has an MA in Creative Writing, is a Hawthornden Fellow, and has been published in a number of magazines, anthologies, and competitions. Apart from writing poetry, swimming in the sea and walking the coast path are her two great loves. She has two poetry collections published:  Open After Dark (Oversteps, 2017) and The Lock-Picker (Palewell Press, 2021). She is looking for a home for her third collection.

Poet and editor Dr. Taylor Byas is here to discuss her award-winning debut poetry collection, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times. Along the way, she shares insights into writing about place, how The Wiz serves as structural inspiration for the collection, her literary inspirations and heroes, the value of Ph.D. programs in creative writing, her editorial work at The Rumpus, the art of chapbooks, managing expectations as an author, and a lot more. She also offers listeners a special preview of Resting Bitch Face, her second full-length collection forthcoming in August 2025.   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.

01. Obscure Shape, Urban Cc, Traumer Stop - Mana 02. Mark Knight, Lukas Setto, Melle Brown - Get With You Tonight 03. Paolo Rocco, Nic Fanciulli - People Say 04. Me & My Toothbrush - The Ride 05. Francesco Bianco - Everynight 06. Unknown7 - Shake That Ass 07. Gwen Dickey, Michael Gray - If I'm Gonna Be With You 08. Agent Stereo - Funky Beat Freak 09. D35 - Let Me Tell Ya 10. Blume (Mex) - Japan 11. Tony Romera - Time To Move 12. Andre Sheridan - Improve da Groove 13. Rick Marshall - Get Enuff 14. Bobby L'Avenir - Make This Happen 15. Josh Baker, Omar, - Back It Up 16. Maana - Hit Parade 17. Markus Graf, Renoa - Apathie 18. Mischief, Max Chapman - Get Known 19. Astrohertz - Love Thing 20. Somersault - Sky 21. Greymatter - Pressure To Talk 22. Monner - Pup It Pup 23. Yolanda Be Cool, Kim English, Mph - Tremble 24. T-Bor - Mira Que 25. Twenty Six, Bandolero - Paris Latino 26. Richard Grey - Unholy 27. Houseium, Nightsub - Azure 28. First, Kokiri, Peace Maker! - Isolation 29. Rihanna, Whisper Machine - Dont Stop The Music 30. Fdf - Cocktail 31. Dominic Bullock - Boombastik 32. Volkoder - Des 33. Dtailr - Gotta Bang 34. Bedran. - Tonight 35. Cabu, Akaciafabich, Ferdinand Weber - Gold 36. Maxsrine - What We All About 37. Murphy'S Law, Guy Mac - Passion 38. Rumpus, Control Room, Rhiannon Roze - OMW 39. Marsolo - What You Say 40. Legit Trip - Budapest Night 41. Sammy Porter - Driving Back 42. Jules Liesl, Mousse T. - Cherry 43. Pietro Cau, Millirad - Tussy Way 44. Zav, Sebb Junior - Just A Man 45. Olexil Hopper - Route 77 46. Manu Chao, Red Effects, Souler - Bongo Bong (Chao Chao) 47. Manuel Grandi - Around The World 48. Azari & Iii, Lost.Act - Reckless 49. Mallin, Sam Dexter - Just A Dream 50. Lost Capital - You Are 51. Timmy P - Ring Elden Will Ya 52. Steve Bug, Huxley - Come On 53. Sam Gellaitry - New Wave 54. Dj Pp, Gabriel Rocha - Feel It 55. Astrohertz - Move Your Body 56. Sister Nancy, Tom & Jame - Bam Bam 57. Hector Couto, Alejandro Paz - El House 58. Peter Jolyon - Music Never Stops 59. Gemi, Tuff Trax - Ego 60. Chris Damon - The System 61. Luca Garaboni, Fabiola Osorio, Marco Lys - Nino 62. Dj Oliver - Mint 63. Col Lawton - Hearts Burning 64. Thomas Newson, Guz (Nl) - Get Raw 65. Sisto - Money Can't Buy 66. David Hasert, Moses Mehdi, Lalena - Unexpected Strings 67. Eurythmics, Tony Metric - Sweet Dreams 68. Capri (Uk) - The Rhythm 69. Lxury - J.A.W.S. 70. Del-30 - Turn It Out 71. Qubiko - U Must Try 72. Marcus Harger - I Got That

01. Obscure Shape, Urban Cc, Traumer Stop - Mana 02. Mark Knight, Lukas Setto, Melle Brown - Get With You Tonight 03. Paolo Rocco, Nic Fanciulli - People Say 04. Me & My Toothbrush - The Ride 05. Francesco Bianco - Everynight 06. Unknown7 - Shake That Ass 07. Gwen Dickey, Michael Gray - If I'm Gonna Be With You 08. Agent Stereo - Funky Beat Freak 09. D35 - Let Me Tell Ya 10. Blume (Mex) - Japan 11. Tony Romera - Time To Move 12. Andre Sheridan - Improve da Groove 13. Rick Marshall - Get Enuff 14. Bobby L'Avenir - Make This Happen 15. Josh Baker, Omar, - Back It Up 16. Maana - Hit Parade 17. Markus Graf, Renoa - Apathie 18. Mischief, Max Chapman - Get Known 19. Astrohertz - Love Thing 20. Somersault - Sky 21. Greymatter - Pressure To Talk 22. Monner - Pup It Pup 23. Yolanda Be Cool, Kim English, Mph - Tremble 24. T-Bor - Mira Que 25. Twenty Six, Bandolero - Paris Latino 26. Richard Grey - Unholy 27. Houseium, Nightsub - Azure 28. First, Kokiri, Peace Maker! - Isolation 29. Rihanna, Whisper Machine - Dont Stop The Music 30. Fdf - Cocktail 31. Dominic Bullock - Boombastik 32. Volkoder - Des 33. Dtailr - Gotta Bang 34. Bedran. - Tonight 35. Cabu, Akaciafabich, Ferdinand Weber - Gold 36. Maxsrine - What We All About 37. Murphy'S Law, Guy Mac - Passion 38. Rumpus, Control Room, Rhiannon Roze - OMW 39. Marsolo - What You Say 40. Legit Trip - Budapest Night 41. Sammy Porter - Driving Back 42. Jules Liesl, Mousse T. - Cherry 43. Pietro Cau, Millirad - Tussy Way 44. Zav, Sebb Junior - Just A Man 45. Olexil Hopper - Route 77 46. Manu Chao, Red Effects, Souler - Bongo Bong (Chao Chao) 47. Manuel Grandi - Around The World 48. Azari & Iii, Lost.Act - Reckless 49. Mallin, Sam Dexter - Just A Dream 50. Lost Capital - You Are 51. Timmy P - Ring Elden Will Ya 52. Steve Bug, Huxley - Come On 53. Sam Gellaitry - New Wave 54. Dj Pp, Gabriel Rocha - Feel It 55. Astrohertz - Move Your Body 56. Sister Nancy, Tom & Jame - Bam Bam 57. Hector Couto, Alejandro Paz - El House 58. Peter Jolyon - Music Never Stops 59. Gemi, Tuff Trax - Ego 60. Chris Damon - The System 61. Luca Garaboni, Fabiola Osorio, Marco Lys - Nino 62. Dj Oliver - Mint 63. Col Lawton - Hearts Burning 64. Thomas Newson, Guz (Nl) - Get Raw 65. Sisto - Money Can't Buy 66. David Hasert, Moses Mehdi, Lalena - Unexpected Strings 67. Eurythmics, Tony Metric - Sweet Dreams 68. Capri (Uk) - The Rhythm 69. Lxury - J.A.W.S. 70. Del-30 - Turn It Out 71. Qubiko - U Must Try 72. Marcus Harger - I Got That

Ruthie Ackerman joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about maternal ambivalence and coming from a long line of women who abandoned their children, taking motherhood on from different angles, feeling ashamed of shame, illuminating what we need to about ourselves, listening to our inner voice, breaking cycles, focusing our work on the memoirist's journey and search for understanding, when family members read our memoir, a close look at the trajectory of her book deal, finding another angle to a story, honing in on the universal question our memoir is asking, when the book needs to be something very different from what you imagined, The Ignite Writers Collective, and her memoir The Mother Code.   Also in this episode:  -rejecting binaries -writing about others' illnesses and differences -when publishing is not an easy path   Books mentioned in this episode: Bodywork by Melissa Febos Avalanche: a love story by Julia Leigh Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women by Lyz Lenz The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho   An award-winning journalist, Ruthie's writing has been published in Vogue, Glamour, O Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Salon, Slate, Newsweek, and more. Her Modern Love essay for the New York Times became the launching point for her forthcoming memoir, The Mother Code. Ruthie started The Ignite Writers Collective in 2019 and since then has become an in-demand book coach and developmental editor. Her client wins include a USA Today bestseller, book deals with Big 5 publishers, representation by buzzy book agents, and essays in prestigious outlets. She has a Master's in Journalism from New York University and lives in Brooklyn with her family.   Connect with Ruthie: Website: https://www.ruthieackerman.com/ Instagram: @ruackerman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthieackerman/ Workshops: https://www.ruthieackerman.com/new-workshop-page Ruthie's Bookshop shelf: https://bookshop.org/shop/ruthieackerman   – 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

Slushies, we invoke the retelling of a ghostly experience shared by Kathy and Marion at the Hotel Figueroa in California earlier this year partway into this episode. Two poems by Jen Siraganian are at the heart of our discussion, and it's the first of these that puts ghosts into our heads. This poem also causes us to consider at some length the physical form chosen by or for a poem, and how this can utterly enhance the experience of the poem when it's just right. It's also an opportunity for Jason to raise the spectre of the virgule (or slash) once again, and we even pause briefly to recall when WYSIWYG was a useful acronym. We end the episode with an ekphrastic that prompts an on-the-spot tie breaker (thanks to our sound engineer Lillie for saving the day!).   https://whitney.org/collection/works/2171 https://www.nga.gov/collection/highlights/gorky-the-artist-and-his-mother.html  At the table: Kathleen Volk Miller, Marion Wrenn, Lisa Zerkle, Jason Schneiderman, Dagne Forrest, Jodi Gahn, Lillie Volpe (sound engineer)   Jen Siraganian is an Armenian-American writer, educator, and former Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, Barrow Street, Best New Poets, Cortland Review, Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Smartish Pace, and other journals. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won the 2024 New Ohio Review Poetry Prize. A former managing director of Litquake: San Francisco's Literary Festival, she is a current Lucas Artist Fellow. jensiraganian.com      Social media handles:   Facebook @jen.siraganian, Instagram @jsiraganian, Bluesky @jsiraganian.bsky.social, Website

This week we ponder an existential question: why do we even play the games?Spain's Final Four is locked in, with the same semifinal matchups as last year.Meanwhile, two longtime stalwarts of the league are each halfway to the French Finals.If it sounds familiar, that's because there are only two certainties in wheelchair basketball: the same teams being there at the end, and us being there to talk about it (sometimes).Available now, wherever you get your podcasts. Get full access to Bench Units at benchunits.substack.com/subscribe

Daria Burke joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about sharing her journey out of Detroit where she was raised in poverty and the question that inspired her memoir, writing well and being well while writing, running away from the past, writing deeply and with courage, refusing to believe in inevitability, doing the unfinished business of raising ourselves, surviving the retelling of our story, holding space for each of the versions of ourselves, how she delivered the investigative reporting aspects of her memoir, rewriting the stories we tell ourselves, posttraumatic growth, embracing full frontal honesty, and her new memoir Of My Own Making.   Also in this episode:  -neuroplasticity -becoming fully available to our life -incorporating books and research   Books mentioned in this episode: -I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou  -The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr -Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate MD The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk Emotional Inheritance by Galit Atlas   DARIA BURKE is an American writer, speaker, and wellbeing advocate. A marketer by trade and a seeker at heart, Daria is a storyteller and sense-maker, weaving together personal experience and the science of healing and transformation to explore new ways of understanding how we choose who we become. Her debut memoir, OF MY OWN MAKING (Spring 2025), is a soulful and scientific exploration of overcoming adversity, healing from childhood trauma, and rewriting one's own story. As a Chief Marketing Officer, Daria was named a 2020 AdAge Woman to Watch whose work has been recognized by Women's Wear Daily, Forbes, Vogue, Town & Country and the Cut. She has written for Fast Company, The Huffington Post, and Black Enterprise, and has appeared on The Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC. A distinguished alumna of NYU Stern School of Business (MBA) and the University of Michigan (BA), Daria was born in Detroit and now calls Los Angeles and East Hampton home. Connect with Daria: Website: dariaburke.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dariaburke/ Get her book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/daria-burke/of-my-own-making/9781538766804/ LinkedIn Newsletter: The Power of Possibility    – 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. Capozzi - MARE 02. Wh0 - Escalator 03. Kream - Manta 04. Voost - Quiero 05. Promise Land, Y&M - Bass Like This 06. Jerro - Kick It 07. Tim Hox, Monogem - Vale La Pena 08. Neon Steve, Black Caviar, Tima Dee - Drug Test 09. Roger Sanchez, Oliver Heldens - Another Chance 10. Rumpus, Cazztek - Need Your Love 11. Rue Jay - I Want Your Love 12. Tom & Jame - Feeling That I Used To Know 13. Goodboys - Chain Reaction 14. Marxxam - In The Club 15. Edx - Desire 16. Low Steppa - Holte 17. Twin Diplomacy, Jack August - Falling Into Motion 18. Diplo, Vavo, Priscilla Block - Bullet 19. Bob Sinclar, A-Trak, Mele - Deep Inside Of Me 20. James Hype, Kim Petras, Tiesto - Drums 21. Armin Van Buuren, Louis Iii - Part Of Me 22. Fedde Le Grand - Who Got The Funk 23. Freejak - My House 24. Tony Romera - Time To Move 25. Ownboss, Byor - Don't Kill My Vibe 26. Laura Van Dam, P.O.U, Jamie Lee Harrison - Rule The World 27. Steve Aoki, Danna Paola - Paranoia 28. Avicii, Sebastien Drums, Don Diablo - My Feelings For You 29. Valy Mo, Fab Massimo - Live Wire 30. Chris Lake X Amber Mark - In My Head 31. Kvsh, Future Skies - DNA 32. Cid - Pass Out 33. Innellea, Then, Carlo Whale - Inside Your Mind 34. Deadmau5 - Familiars 35. Yuhei, Sensei - Party Starts 36. Macker - Check One 37. Camelphat, Vomee - Needed You 38. Ounah - Right Now

01. Capozzi - MARE 02. Wh0 - Escalator 03. Kream - Manta 04. Voost - Quiero 05. Promise Land, Y&M - Bass Like This 06. Jerro - Kick It 07. Tim Hox, Monogem - Vale La Pena 08. Neon Steve, Black Caviar, Tima Dee - Drug Test 09. Roger Sanchez, Oliver Heldens - Another Chance 10. Rumpus, Cazztek - Need Your Love 11. Rue Jay - I Want Your Love 12. Tom & Jame - Feeling That I Used To Know 13. Goodboys - Chain Reaction 14. Marxxam - In The Club 15. Edx - Desire 16. Low Steppa - Holte 17. Twin Diplomacy, Jack August - Falling Into Motion 18. Diplo, Vavo, Priscilla Block - Bullet 19. Bob Sinclar, A-Trak, Mele - Deep Inside Of Me 20. James Hype, Kim Petras, Tiesto - Drums 21. Armin Van Buuren, Louis Iii - Part Of Me 22. Fedde Le Grand - Who Got The Funk 23. Freejak - My House 24. Tony Romera - Time To Move 25. Ownboss, Byor - Don't Kill My Vibe 26. Laura Van Dam, P.O.U, Jamie Lee Harrison - Rule The World 27. Steve Aoki, Danna Paola - Paranoia 28. Avicii, Sebastien Drums, Don Diablo - My Feelings For You 29. Valy Mo, Fab Massimo - Live Wire 30. Chris Lake X Amber Mark - In My Head 31. Kvsh, Future Skies - DNA 32. Cid - Pass Out 33. Innellea, Then, Carlo Whale - Inside Your Mind 34. Deadmau5 - Familiars 35. Yuhei, Sensei - Party Starts 36. Macker - Check One 37. Camelphat, Vomee - Needed You 38. Ounah - Right Now

Tom McAllister joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about finding the right container for our work trusting our writing to speak for itself, giving ourselves homework, writing constraints as guiding principles, his approach to teaching nonfiction, the challenge of self-promotion, strategies for creating companion pieces, stating things boldly and with confidence, the podcast Book Fight he co-hosts, and how he wrote a short essay for every year of his life and turned it into his new book It All Felt Impossible.:42 Years in 42 Essays. Also in this episode: -trusting the reader -when the well feels dry -handling rejection   Books mentioned in this episode: The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson My Documents by Alejandro Zambra A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Cruz The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen   Tom McAllister is the author of the novel How to Be Safe, which was named one of the best books of 2018 by Kirkus and The Washington Post. His other books are the novel The Young Widower's Handbook and the memoir Bury Me in My Jersey. His short stories and essays have been published in The Sun, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Black Warrior Review, and many other places. He is the nonfiction editor at Barrelhouse and co-hosts the Book Fight! podcast with Mike Ingram. He lives in New Jersey and teaches in the MFA Program at Rutgers-Camden.   Tom's article in The Writer's Chronicle: https://writerschronicle.awpwriter.org/TWC/2025-february/preview/04_From-Anecdote-to-Essay-preview.aspx Connect with Tom: tom.mcallister.ws https://www.instagram.com/realpizzatom/ https://bsky.app/profile/tmcallister.bsky.social https://www.facebook.com/tom.mcallister.12   – 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

Bonny Reichert joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about not knowing if she'd find a way to tell the story that weighed on her, growing up in the shadow of traumatic family history, selling on proposal and working out the boundaries of a book, her background as a food journalist, hammering out the details of the narrative arc, eliminating the squishy middle, reverse outlining for emotional resonance, creating composite characters, telling a story through food, crafting the self as a character, shortening chapters for flexibility, drawing the complexity and sense of beauty and wonder around her father's story of surviving the Holocaust, and her memoir How to Share an Egg.   Also in this episode:  -food as glue -writing a culinary memoir wrapped around a family story -the toll of intergenerational trauma   Books mentioned in this episode: -Also a Poet:Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun -H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald -Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl   Bonny Reichert is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist. She has been an editor at Today's Parent and Chatelaine magazines, and a columnist and regular contributor to The Globe and Mail newspaper. When she turned forty, a now-or-never feeling made her quit her job to enroll in culinary school, and she's been exploring her relationship with food on the page ever since. Bonny was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and lives in Toronto with her husband and little dog, Bruno. HOW TO SHARE AN EGG won the 2022 Dave Greber Book Award for social justice writing.   Connect with Bonny: Website: https://bonnyreichert.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/bonnyreichert – 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

Vicky Nguyen joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up Vietnamese in America and what this country has meant for someone like her, writing memoir as a public figure, pivoting as a writer, not being too quick to self-edit, managing backstory to keep a memoir propulsive, having conversations with loved ones about shared family history, connecting through vulnerability, book promotion as a whole other job, exhausting every marketing channel, writing about people who don't necessarily want to be in our memoirs, how we “rememoir” things, digging deep, and her new memoir Boat Baby. Also in this episode: -when family remembers things differently  -writing in our voice -anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S.   Books mentioned in this episode: -Born a Crime by Trevor Noah -Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen -The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu -Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran -The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls -The Writer by James Patterson   Vicky is an NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent and anchor of NBC News Daily. She reports for the Today show, Nightly News with Lester Holt and NBC News Now. She graduated as valedictorian from the University of San Francisco. Vicky lives in New York with her husband and three daughters. Her parents are always nearby. Connect with Vicky: Website: https://www.vickynguyen.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vickynguyentv Get Boat Baby: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Boat-Baby/Vicky-Nguyen/9781668025567 – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

After a extended illness-related break, Ryan is officially a resident of Bothell (again), Erik went fishing, WrestleMania happened, Erik made the worst steak of his life, and Ryan ranks the 7 modern wonders of the world!For this week's "Ask the Talent", Ryan watches a clip from just a few weeks ago as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin runs his 4-wheeler into a barricade at WrestleMania 41! 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

KB Brookins joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about transness, masculinity, and race, how how being a writer has crystalized their experience and made it legible to an audience and to themselves, turning to prose to say the hard things, the tenacity of memoir, resisting erasure and pushing back on toxic systems, coming at creative nonfiction from a poetic impulse, having patience with ourselves, what we might need to let go of as writers, looking at our work with kinder eyes, the way we treat people because of gender, and their multi-themed memoir Pretty. Also in this episode: -stages of grief -permission to have anger -when lines for genre aren't as helpful   Books mentioned in this episode: -Asatta: An Autobiography by Asatta Shakur -Black Boy by Richard Wright -Heavy by Kiese Laymon KB Brookins is a Black queer and trans writer, cultural worker, and visual artist from Texas. KB's chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound won the Saguaro Poetry Prize, a Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prize, and a Stonewall Honor Book Award. Their debut poetry collection Freedom House won the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for the Best First Book of Poetry. KB's debut memoir Pretty, released in May 2024 with Alfred A. Knopf, won the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award in Creative Non-Fiction.   Connect with KB: Website: https://earthtokb.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthtokb TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthtokb Substack: https://substack.com/@earthtokb Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/earthtokb.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthtokb Get the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724994/pretty-by-kb-brookins/ – 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

This week I'm talking with Amy Shearn, the award-winning author of the critically-acclaimed novels “Dear Edna Sloane,” “Unseen City,” “The Mermaid of Brooklyn,” and “How Far Is the Ocean from Here.” Amy's newest novel is “Animal Instinct,” which follows a 40-something newly divorced woman re-entering the dating scene and reconnecting with her desires during the social isolation of COVID lockdowns. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called it "delightful and hilarious,” which I can co-sign–despite its pandemic backdrop, which might sound like it could be stressful, this is a book I look forward to reading each night because I know it will take my mind off my worry du jour and give me a lot to think about while also being a ton of fun.Amy has nearly twenty years experience as an editor for digital publications, has published hundreds of essays for places including New York Times' "Modern Love" column and The Rumpus, and she currently works one-on-one with writers as an editor and writing coach. We covered:- Her really insightful take on how loving reading as a kid can lead to wanting to be a writer (I hadn't thought of it in this way before)- The mix of calling and coercion that got her to think beyond writing novels to also penning personal essays- Making the shift to freelancing as an editor, teacher, and book coach (and away from working for a publication for her primary income source)- Matching your writing goals to the time you have available (as someone who needs to work full-time, whether as a freelancer or an employee)- How to keep yourself accountable to your writing goals when you don't have a deadline- Using a 50-50 parenting agreement post-divorce as an "every other weekend writing retreat" Connect with Amy on Instagram @amyshearnwriters, Substack @amyshearn, or at amyshearnwriters.com. For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. Thank you for listening! And thanks to this week's sponsor, Air Doctor Pro. Visit airdoctorpro.com and use code KATE to save 30% off an amazing indoor air filter *and* receive a free three-year warranty (an $84 value). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Yang joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about her bipolar diagnosis and becoming a mental health advocate, immigrating to the U.S. as a young child, writing at the intersection of body image, mental health, and Asian American identity, building an author platform, revisiting old family dynamics and patterns, grieving a family of origin, mourning make-believe mothers, doing a lot of processing before writing about trauma, keeping the reader in mind, removing societal stigma around serious mental health diagnoses, how she survived and found hope, and her new memoir Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love.   Also in this episode: -keeping strict boundaries -writing in short digestible chapters -revising a manuscript from past to present tense   Books mentioned in this episode:  -Relative Strangers by A.H. Kim -Educated by Tara Westover -Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney -Rock Steady by Ellen Forney  -I'm Telling the Truth But I'm Lying by Bassey Ikpi -The Body Papers by Grace Talusan -Hunger by Roxane Gay -What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo   Michelle Yang is an advocate whose writings on the intersection of Asian American identity, body image, and mental health have been featured in NBC News, CNN, InStyle, and Reader's Digest. Michelle has also been featured on NPR, Washington Post, and The Seattle Times for her advocacy. She loves exploring new parts of her new home state of Michigan with her family and smoking up the kitchen with spicy recipes. Her new memoir is Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love. You can find her on michelleyangwriter.com or on Instagram @michelleyangwriter. Connect with Michelle: Website: michelleyangwriter.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelleyangwriter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelleyangwriter   – 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

This week we are joined by Jabbo of Proper Rumpus Media to play some games. Aaron hosts Augie, Jabbo, and Stevie through three games in a cutthroat style gameplay.GAME 1 - LIKE SHARE BLOCKStory 1 - Horny Woodpecker Vandalizing Cars All Over Massachusetts - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/us/woodpecker-breaking-car-mirrors.htmlStory 2 - Drunk Chimpanzees Prove Getting Crunk With Friends Actually Older Than Humans - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225002817#mmc2Story 3 - Man Sinks Waist-Deep in Quicksand, Scores a Girlfriend - https://www.mlive.com/environment/2025/04/quicksand-swallows-man-at-michigan-beach-near-harbor-dredging.htmlGame 2 - The Cost is CorrectI've got five items up for bids, players will take turns bidding on the listings, and the player closest to the final auction price without going over wins the listing. The player with the most listings once we're done with all five wins the game and gets two episode points.Game 3 - 4 Out of 5 DentistsI've got five surveys asking questions like "what percentage of Americans believe in ghosts", and one player will guess the exact percentage - if they are within ten points high or low, they'll get a point. One of the other players will guess whether the actual answer is higher or lower, and the final player automatically takes the opposite option. After all five surveys, the player(s) with the highest score win the game and get three episode points.Promos this week @BeerdAlPodcast @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.Free 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

Jessica speaks with Emily J. Smith, a writer and tech professional based in Brooklyn, New York. Her debut novel, NOTHING SERIOUS, published by William Morrow (HarperCollins), is out now wherever you buy books. Emily studied Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell and earned an MBA from UC Berkeley. She has led teams at top tech companies and nonprofits, and she is the founder of the dating app, Chorus. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Catapult, Slate, Hobart, The Washington Post, Vice, and other publications. Follow Emily's work at emjsmith.com, and buy NOTHING SERIOUS wherever you get your books.~Are you a high achiever, a leader, or an Ampersand looking for a sounding board? Jessica helps executives, leaders, and founders like you gain clarity and lead bravely. As your trusted advisor and growth partner, I work with you to make the invisible visible and develop an action plan to fulfill your goals. For nearly two decades, Jessica led marketing teams, launched products, and grew businesses at places like Apple, the San Francisco Opera, Smule, and Magoosh. As an Ampersand in many facets, she knows personally what it's like to hold many roles simultaneously, to sit on the executive team, and to find fulfillment. With a BA in Music and a BS in Product Design from Stanford, coupled with an MBA from UC Berkeley and coach training from the Center for Executive Coaching, her unique mix of analytical & creative allows her to bring both depth and breadth of perspective into the coaching process.As a coach, Jessica works to champion you – the full, multifaceted you – so you can thrive.Visit ⁠jessicawan.com⁠ or BOOK AN INTRO CALL: ⁠https://calendly.com/jessicawancoaching/intro-call-coaching⁠CreditsProduced and hosted by ⁠Jessica Wan⁠Co-produced, edited, sound design, and original music by ⁠Carlos Schmitt

Julie Brill joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and her journey to understand the unexamined childhood stories she grew up with, being a reluctant memoirist and leaning into telling the story of an ordinary person figuring things out, the Holocaust and the history of the Jews of Serbia, inherited memories, making ourselves the central character, when our parents'  foundational stories become ours, finding our place, permission to tell a story if you didn't live through it, and her new memoir HIdden in Plain Sight: A Family Memoir and the Untold Story of the Holocaust in Serbia.   Also in this episode: -the missing missing -the unthought known -making research readable   Books mentioned in this episode: Three Minutes in Poland by Glenn Kertz Paper Love by Sarah Wildman Plunder by Menachem Kaiser Big Magic by Liz Gilbert The Creative Process by Twyla Tharp   As a child, Julie Brill held two conflicting beliefs. She knew Germans had murdered her Jewish grandfather in occupied Yugoslavia, yet she somehow believed the Holocaust had never come to his hometown of Belgrade. The family anecdotes her father passed down, a blend of his early memories and what his mother told him, didn't match what Julie had heard about Germany, Poland, and Anne Frank in Holland during World War II. Even frequent readers of Holocaust history likely do not understand the Serbian story. Destruction there came early and fast. Without cattle cars, gas chambers, or distant camps, the Nazis murdered almost the entire Jewish population before the plan for the Final Solution was even set. With so few Jewish survivors and descendants from Serbia, the story of the Shoah there has gone untold. Julie's quest to understand and share what she learned led to Hidden in Plain Sight: A Family Memoir and the Untold Story of the Holocaust in Serbia. Julie has written for Haaretz, the Forward, Kveller, The Times of Israel, Balkan Insight, and elsewhere. She shares her family's experiences in the Holocaust in middle and high school classrooms through Living Links.  Additionally, Julie is a lactation consultant, doula, childbirth educator, and the author of the anthology Round the Circle: Doulas Share Their Experiences. She began attending births and teaching childbirth classes in 1992 and has supported thousands of families in the childbearing year. She graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Sociology and Gender Studies and completed the Massachusetts Midwifery Alliance Apprenticeship Course. She is the mother of two adult daughters.   Connect with Julie: Website: https://juliebrill.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juliesbrill/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/juliebrill.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julie.brill1 X: https://www.Twitter.com/juliebrill8 Get her book: https://mybook.to/irl0   – 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 episode 238, welcome Emile DeWeaver to discuss reforming the US criminal justice system, the lack of a systematic understanding of crime in most rehabilitation programs, white supremacy as a version of the human tendency to dominate, the “near enemy” of incremental change, the roots of US policing and the need for a collective mind to replace it, the struggle with assimilation for formerly incarcerated people, the importance of clarity and courage for social justice, and why Emile's book is just the beginning of deeper work which should include strengthening our imaginations. Emile Suotonye DeWeaver is a formerly incarcerated activist, widely published essayist, owner of Re:Frame LLC, and a 2022 Soros Justice Fellow. California's Governor Brown commuted his life sentence after twenty-one years for his community work. He has written for publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, Colorlines, The Appeal, The Rumpus, and Seventh Wave. His new book, available May 13, 2025, is called Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, White Supremacy, and an Abolitionist Future. | Emile Suotonye DeWeaver | ► Website | https://www.reframeconsults.com/about-emile ► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/emilesuotonyedeweaver ► Substack | https://emiledeweaver.substack.com ► Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine Book | https://amzn.to/4lUkZm8 Where you can find us: | Seize The Moment Podcast | ► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/SeizeTheMoment ► Twitter | https://twitter.com/seize_podcast  ► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/seizethemoment  

Margaret Anne Mary Moore joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about her realization at an early age that she wanted to be a nonfiction writer and memoirist, facing severe discrimination as a child with disabilities, how she wrote about her disability experience on a granular level, using a communication device, taking breaks to work on other aspects of a project when the writing process grows tiresome, devoting chapters to a single theme, striving to make characterizations rich in detail, looking at rejection juxtaposed against life circumstances, how traumatic memories get seared into our memory, compassion and acceptance, and her memoir Bold, Brave, and Breathless: Reveling in Childhood's Splendiferous Glories While Facing Disability and Loss.   Margaret's Brevity blog article link: https://brevity.wordpress.com/2024/12/23/who-gets-a-spot-on-the-river/   Also in this episode: -hermit crab forms -writing sharp scenes -embodied writing   Books mentioned in this episode: The Mindful Writer by Dinty W. Moore The Shell Game by Kim Adrian Congratulations, Who Are You Again? by Harrison Scott Key   Margaret Anne Mary Moore is the author of the bestselling disability memoir Bold, Brave, and Breathless: Reveling in Childhood's Splendiferous Glories While Facing Disability and Loss (Woodhall Press, 2023) and is currently writing the sequel. She is a summer 2022 graduate of Fairfield University's Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program, where she earned a degree in creative nonfiction and poetry. Margaret is an editor and the marketing coordinator at Woodhall Press and an ambassador for PRC-Saltillo. A featured book on the AWP Bookshelf, Bold, Brave, and Breathless is her debut book. She is a contributor to Gina Barreca's book Fast Famous Women: 75 Essays of Flash Nonfiction (Woodhall Press, 2025). Her writing has appeared in America Magazine, Brevity's Nonfiction Blog, and Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, Independent Catholic News among other publications.    Connect with Margaret: Website: margaretannemarymoore.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/margaretannemarymooreauthor/ X: https://x.com/mooreofawriter Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/margaretannemarymoore_author LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-moore-m-f-a-86835312a/ Good Reads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29567595.Margaret_Anne_Mary_Moore Book: https://a.co/d/b0VZ8Mk   – 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

Diana Raab joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about connecting with ancestors and tuning into their guidance, books that need to be written, when publisher requests don't resonate with us, adding prompts for readers, unwanted daughters and intergenerational trauma, how books we don't like help us, adding prompts for readers, tapping into authentic voice, and her new book Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors.   Also in this episode:  -reading broadly  -surviving cancer multiple times -how trauma manifests later in life   Book mentioned in this episode: This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff Paula by Isabel Allende Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick  Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo  Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo   Diana Raab, MFA, PhD, is a poet, memoirist, workshop leader, thought-leader and award-winning author of fourteen books. Her work has been widely published and anthologized. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and The Best of the Net. She frequently speaks and writes on writing for healing and transformation. Her 14th and newest book is Hummingbird: Messages from My Ancestors, A memoir with reflection and writing prompts (2024).Raab writes for Psychology Today, The Good Men Project, Sixty and Me, Thrive Global, and is a guest writer for many others.    Connect with Diana: Website: https://www.dianaraab.com Forthcoming poetry anthology: https://gunpowderpress.com/product/women-in-a-golden-state/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dianaraab/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-raab-phd-a1850911/ Facebook (Author): https://www.facebook.com/DianaRaab.Author/ Facebook (Diana M Raab): https://www.facebook.com/diana.m.raab/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/512931.Diana_Raab YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dianaraab1 Diana's monthly newsletter: https://dianaraab.com/signup/ – 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

Are you close to a pigeon fancier? We want to hear from you! Jane and Jane also chat James Bond, healthcare and Touchnote. Plus, actor James Nelson-Joyce discusses Liverpool-based gang drama ‘This City Is Ours'. Send your suggestions for the next book club pick! If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: janeandfi@times.radioFollow us on Instagram! @janeandfi Podcast Producer: Eve Salusbury Executive Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr. T and Truth Fairy welcome Greg Wrenn, a former Alabama state representative and long-time health policy advocate, who shares insights into how he became interested in the therapeutic use of psychedelics through personal research and professional exposure. Greg recently wrote a book called “Mothership” about coral reef research, ecological crisis, and his personal PTSD healing journey with ayahuasca. He discusses portions of the book and his experiences with Truth and Dr. T.  Greg explores the growing interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy, particularly its potential to help individuals who struggle with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD. He addresses the shift from viewing psychedelics as taboo to recognizing their potential under controlled, clinical settings. His personal stories, alongside those shared by Truth, highlight the positive impact psychedelic therapy can have and how his passion for the issue has been fueled. Truth Fairy, Dr. T, and Greg share concerns about the challenges of implementing beneficial psychedelic healing sessions, and they celebrate Greg's integration of tribal and liberating dance into the ayahuasca ceremony. They talk about the importance of regulation, ethical safeguards, and integration of Indigenous practices, and caution against the risks of commercialization. The episode is both vulnerable and informative, painting a hopeful picture of potential healing even in the face of difficult times.“You know, I'm no psychedelic evangelist. I don't think everyone should drink ayahuasca or work with psychedelics. I know I should, I know I need to. And so this is really important for my mission, which is to, I guess, spread a message of love and spread a message of the possibility of planetary healing, because planetary healing happens, at least with humanity, one brain at a time.” - Greg Wrenn__About Greg Wrenn:A former Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, GREG WRENN is the author of the ayahuasca eco-memoir Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis, an evidence-based account of his turning to coral reefs and psychedelic plants to heal from childhood trauma, and Centaur (U of Wisconsin Press 2013), which National Book Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes awarded the Brittingham Prize. ​Greg's work has appeared or is forthcoming in HuffPost, The New Republic, Al Jazeera, The Rumpus, LitHub, Writer's Digest, Kenyon Review, New England Review, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. He has received awards and fellowships from the James Merrill House, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, the Poetry Society of America, the Hermitage Artist Retreat, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Spiro Arts Center. On his Mothership book tour, he spoke to audiences around the world, including at Yale School of Medicine, the University of Utah School of Medicine, Vancouver Island University, and the University of Virginia School of Nursing. Greg has also been on numerous podcasts, including Levi Chambers's PRIDE, and was recently interviewed by Emmy Award-winning journalist Elizabeth Vargas on NewsNation​ and by Jane Garvey on Times Radio (UK). ​As an associate English professor at James Madison University, he teaches creative nonfiction, poetry, and environmental literature and directs the JMU Creative Writing Minor. He also teaches in the Memoir Certificate Program at Stanford Continuing Studies. He was educated at Harvard University and Washington University in St. Louis.Greg is currently at work on a follow-up book to Mothership and sending out Homesick, his second poetry collection. A student of ayahuasca since 2019, he is a trained yoga teacher and a PADI Advanced Open Water diver, having explored coral reefs around the world for over 25 years. He and his husband divide their time between the mountains of Virginia and Atlantic Beach, Florida.Website: GregWrenn.comBook: “Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis” by Greg Wrenn__Contact Punk Therapy:Patreon: Patreon.com/PunkTherapyWebsite: PunkTherapy.comEmail: info@punktherapy.com Contact Truth Fairy: Email: Truth@PunkTherapy.com

Rebe Huntman joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about who are we as women and what holds us together as a culture, following questions to their conclusions and changing in the process, running away from grief,  magical thinking, reinventing ourselves, Afro-Cuban traditions and relationships to the dead, hungering for answers, permission to be more than one thing, losing mothers and finding them again through memoir, spiritual mothers and keeping the dead close, and her new memoir My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic & Miracle. Also in this episode: -getting a do over -trusting the writing process -including the beautiful and the terrible Books mentioned in this episode: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern Poetry by Richard Blanco Poetry by Aracelis Girmay REBE HUNTMAN is the author of My Mother in Havana: A Memoir of Magic & Miracle (February 2025, Monkfish Books), a memoir that traces her search to connect with her mother—thirty years after her death—among the gods and saints of Cuba. A former professional Latin and Afro-Cuban dancer and choreographer, for over a decade Rebe directed Chicago's award-winning Danza Viva Center for World Dance, Art & Music and its resident dance company, One World Dance Theater. She collaborates with native artists in Cuba and South America, and has been featured in LATINA Magazine, Chicago Magazine, and the Chicago Tribune, and on Fox and ABC. Rebe's essays, stories, and poems appear or are forthcoming in such places as The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Parabola, Ninth Letter, The Cincinnati Review, and the PINCH, and have earned her an Ohio Individual Excellence Award as well as fellowships from the Macondo Writers' Conference, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Ragdale Foundation, PLAYA Residency, Hambidge Center, and Brush Creek Foundation. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from The Ohio State University and lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and Delaware, Ohio. Both e's in her name are long. Find her at www. rebehuntman.com and on Instagram at @rebehuntman. Connect with Rebe: Website: www.rebehuntman.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rebehuntman Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebehuntmanauthor Links to purchase the book at www.rebehuntman.com/mymotherinhavana   – 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

Professor, culture critic, noted writer, and editor Roxane Gay joins Tavis to talk about her new anthology, "The Portable Feminist Reader," her award-winning comic book series "Black Panther: World of Wakanda," and her new ownership of the literary magazine, The Rumpus.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tavis-smiley--6286410/support.

01. Kream, Camden Cox - Weightless 02. Win Win - Music, Dance, Freedom 03. Moby, Biscits, Apollo Jane, Deitrick Haddon - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad 04. Tom & Jame - Feeling That I Used To Know 05. Dale Howard - Switch 06. Dj Michelle - Don't Hold Back 07. Cumbiafrica, Lost Minds, Reebs - Shingaling Shingaling 08. Solardo, Vintage Culture, Lowes - Adidas & Pearls 09. Cosmic Gate, James French - I'm On Fire 10. Twin Diplomacy, Jack August - Falling Into Motion 11. Basotdel - Lose My Mind 12. Mor3L - Sounds Good 13. Shapov - Dreams Control 14. Don Diablo - The Way I Are 15. Curbi, Cashew - Danny Phantom 16. Chester Young, Setou, Senyo, Lydia Lyon - Hold Me Back 17. Moguai - Deaf by Stereo 18. Ansun, Closed - Faultless 19. Byor - Old School 20. Laura Van Dam, P.O.U, Jamie Lee Harrison - Rule The World 21. Marten Horger, Slvr - Purple Pill 22. Future Class, Fraxy - Follow U 23. Fedde Le Grand, Todd Terry, Rowetta - Baby Can You Reach 24. Leo Oliver, Dan-Ros - What You Can Do 25. Body Ocean, Merc The Big Body Benz - Sauce 26. Fisher - Stay 27. David Guetta, Sia - Beautiful People 28. Mau P - The Less I Know The Better 29. Steve Aoki, Danna Paola - Paranoia 30. Nathan Dawe, Abi Flynn - Here In Your Arms 31. Kapuzen - Holding You Up 32. Tim Hox, Monogem - Vale La Pena 33. Natty Rico, Mr. Killa - Zaza Man 34. Swimming Paul - Liza M1 35. Rumpus, Cazztek - Need Your Love 36. Repiet - All I Need 37. Ownboss, Schillist, Silque - Tudum 38. Ac Slater, Young Lyxx - Bass Face

Bridgett M. Davis joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about the effect of trauma and weathering on Black lives, the unique bond between sisters, showing relationships in action and dialogue, homing in on a throughline, giving our books and writing the space they need,finding patterns and switching lenses, exploring varying lived experiences within family structures, shedding light on Lupus, the physiological effects of systemic racism, Black maternal mortality, moments of heartbreak, asking important narrative questions early on, the letters her sister wrote to her, and her new memoir Love, Rita.   Also in this episode: -birth order -getting a book optioned or film -shifting points of view   Books mentioned in this episode: -The Situations and the Story by Vivian Gornick -Inventing the Truth by William Zisner -The Yellow House by Sarah  -Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway -The Invisible Kingdom by Megan O'Rourke -Fairy Land by Alisha Abbott -Gather Me by Glory Adams   Bridgett M. Davis (pronounced Brih-jet) is the author of the memoir, Love, Rita, published by Harper Books in spring 2025.Her first memoir, The World According To Fannie Davis: My Mother's Life In The Detroit Numbers, was a New York Times Editors' Choice, a 2020 Michigan Notable Book, named a Best Book of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews, BuzzFeed, NBC News and Parade Magazine, and featured as a clue on the quiz show Jeopardy! The upcoming film adaptation will be produced by Plan B Entertainment and released by Searchlight Pictures. She is author of two novels, Into the Go-Slow, named a Best Book of 2014 by The San Francisco Chronicle, and Shifting Through Neutral, shortlisted for the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award. Davis is also writer/director of the 1996 award-winning feature film Naked Acts, newly restored and released to critical acclaim, screening in theaters across the US and globally and now available on DVD, Blu Ray and select streaming services. Davis is Professor Emerita in the journalism department at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center, where she has taught creative, narrative and film writing. Her essays have appeared most recently in The New York Times, the LA Times and The Washington Post, among other publications. A graduate of Spelman College and Columbia Journalism School, she lives in Brooklyn with her family. Visit her website at www.bridgettdavis.com. Connect with Bridgett: Website: bridgettdavis.com Facebook: bridgettdavis Bluesky: bridgettmdavis.bsky.social IG: https://www.instagram.com/bridgett_d substack: bridgettmdavis.substack.com Links for book purchase: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/love-rita-bridgett-m-davis?variant=43263953174562 Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/p/books/love-rita-a-sister-s-story-bridgett-m-davis/21696108   – 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

Megan Williams joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about being a new mother while training at the police academy, looking for validation, resisting the urge to punish ourselves, pushing back against the voice of patriarchal culture, writing to our past self, going too far and not going far enough, the loneliness of motherhood, setting boundaries in memoir, testing ourselves, what motherhood feels like now, moving elegantly through time in memoir, surrounding yourself with talented writers, frontloading a manuscript, and her memoir One Bad Mother: A Mother's Search for Meaning in the Police Academy. Also in this episode: -thinking as a form of writing -writing community -writing conferences     Books mentioned in this episode: Crossing the River by Carol Smith  Starry Field by Margaret Juhae Lee Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Alliosn You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith A Well-Trained Wife by Tia Levings   Megan Williams is the author of One Bad Mother: A Mother's Search for Meaning in the Police Academy. After graduating from Haverford College, Megan received her Ph.D. in English from Temple University and taught at Lafayette College and Santa Clara University. She has moved across the country—never landing in the middle—three times in twenty years. She now lives in Bellingham with her husband, who runs Blue Dog Bakery and keeps their teenage twins, rescued cat, horse, and mastiff full of treats. Connect with Megan Williams: Website: www.meganwilliamsauthor.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1347114175 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ottoisking/ Tiktok: @one.bad.mother LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-williams-6585844a/ Get the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/one-bad-mother-a-woman-s-search-for-meaning-in-motherhood-and-the-philadelphia-police-academy-megan-williams/20964845?ean=9781960573858   – 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

Paul Lisicky joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about how his appreciation for Joni Mitchell  and love of her work shaped his life as a musician and a writer, vulnerability and uncertainty on the page, falling outside the containers of what's expected, the singular and universal in our work, vulnerability and uncertainty in our creative process, corralling ourselves back to our 5 senses, feeling structure in our bodies, writing for the reader, developing ourselves as artists, being tenacious in pursuing our vision, writing about our idols, and his new book Song So Wild and Blue.   Also in this episode: -image-based writing -writing a proposal for the first time -how structure can help liberate our work   Books/Authors mentioned in this episode: Sigrid Nunez Elizabeth McCracken Sarah Manguso Mary Gaitskill  Joy Williams Barry Lopez Annie Liontis E.J. Koh All Fours by Miranda July   Paul Lisicky is the author of seven books including Song So Wild and Blue: A Life with the Music of Joni Mitchell, Later: My Life at the Edge of the World, The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship. A recipient of Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the NEA, he is a professor of English in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Camden. He lives in Brooklyn. Website: http://www.paullisicky.net/ Connect with Paul: https://bsky.app/profile/paullisicky.bsky.social Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paul_lisicky/ Get the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/song-so-wild-and-blue-a-life-with-the-music-of-joni-mitchell-paul-lisicky/21517908?ean=9780063280373 – 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 the latest Rumpus Time, Ryan explains his failure to bring the Goldfish crackers that he promised, Ryan tells the story of the time he lied about losing a testicle, Erik breaks the grocery store embargo to share a mysterious tale, and Ryan ranks ways of drying your hands in public bathrooms.And last but not least, for this week's "Ask the Talent" Ryan watches as The Rock, Chris Jericho, Booker T, and Rhyno engage in a spirited debate over Stephanie McMahon's alleged augmentations.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

Maggie Smith returns to Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about letting imposter syndrome go, fiercely guarding your interior life, getting back to the core place where creativity thrives, rewriting a book from scratch, how writing feels in the body, swerving out of your creative lane, battling the sophomore slump, what it feels like to be watched, when ego gets in the way, fears of paralyzing failure, playing the long game, the best advice she ever got, staying agile and awake in the creative process, and her new book Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life.   Ronit's first interview with Maggie Smith: https://ronitplank.com/2023/04/11/lets-talk-memoir-episode-38-ft-maggie-smith/   Also in this episode: -the inner critic -assembling a book freestyle -tenacity and grit     Books mentioned in this episode: Meander, Spiral, Explode by Jane Allison The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow by Steve Almond Greywolf Press series “The Art of…” books   Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books of poetry and prose, including You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir (One Signal/Atria, 2023); My Thoughts Have Wings, illustrated by Leanne Hatch (Balzer+Bray/Harperkids, 2024); Goldenrod: Poems (One Signal/Atria, 2021); Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change (One Signal/Atria, 2020); and Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017). Smith's next book is Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life, forthcoming from One Signal/Atria in April 2025. Her poems and essays have appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Poetry, The Nation, The Best American Poetry, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, AGNI, Ploughshares, Image, the Washington Post, Virginia Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, The Southern Review, and many other journals and anthologies. In 2016 her poem "Good Bones" went viral internationally; since then it has been translated into nearly a dozen languages and featured on the CBS primetime drama Madam Secretary. Smith has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, the Ohio Arts Council, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.   – 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

Karen Kirsten joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about the messy complexity of family, asking the right questions, writing about a time in history when you weren't present in that history, utilizing and incorporating primary research, recorded interviews, archived documents, diaries, film, and photographs into memoir, writing fact-based vivid scenes, working with historians to accurately depict world-altering events, being honest with the reader and grappling with conflicting information on the page, changing the central question of your memoir, being a detective and being dogged, having a care plan and a nurturing creative community, writing about transgenerational trauma, inserting yourself into the narrative as a character, and her new memoir Irina's Gift.   Also in this episode: -structural changes late in the process -delaying reveals to add suspense -using image systems to address transgenerational trauma   Books mentioned in this episode:    The Fact of a Body by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich The Most Dangerous Book by Kevin Birmingham The Sinner and the Saint by Kevin Birmingham Fairyland by Alysia Abbott The Postcard by Anne Berest The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel WIlkers The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante Leviathan by Paul Auster Question 7 by Richard Flanagan Swimming in Paris: A Life in Three Stories by Colombe Schneck Who I Always Was by Theresa Okokon Karen Kirsten is the author of Irena's Gift, a National Jewish Book Award finalist for Autobiography & Memoir, winner of Zibby Awards for Best Family Drama & Best Story of Overcoming, and an Australian Jewish Book Award finalist. Irena's Gift is also The Australian newspaper's'notable book', and described by Pulitzer prize winning author Geraldine Brooks as ”a disturbing investigation into the power of secrets to harm and to haunt.”   Karen is an Australian-American writer and Holocaust educator who speaks around the world on the topics of hate and reconciliation. Karen's essay “Searching for the Nazi Who Saved My Mother's Life” was selected by Narratively as one of their Best Ever stories and nominated for The Best American Essays. Karen's writing has also appeared in Salon.com, The Week, The Jerusalem Post, Huffington Post*, Boston's National Public Radio station, The Boston Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, and more.    Connect with Karen: Website: https://www.karenkirsten.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/findingbabcie/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.kirsten Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/747811/irenas-gift-by-karen-kirsten/   – 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

Paula Delgado-Kling joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her research and reporting on child soldiers, drug trafficking, and the revolutionary armed forces of Columbia (FARC) led her to tell the story of one woman and her family, the relationships we forge with whom we write about, allowing memoir to answer our questions, negotiating language barriers and class differences, coming to truth and understanding, grounding ourselves, hitting upon the structure a book needs, searching for humanity amidst ongoing violence, and her new book Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood.   Also in this episode: -working as a journalist -becoming embedded in the story we're covering  -negotiating dangerous environments to gather information   Books mentioned in this episode: Tastes Like War by Grace M. Cho It can take a really long time but that doesn't mean it isn't important or good.   Paula Delgado-Kling holds degrees in comparative literature/French civilizations, international affairs, and creative writing from Brown University, Columbia University, and The New School, respectively. Leonor, for which she received two grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts, is her first book. Excerpts of this book have appeared in Narrative, The Literary Review, Pacifica Literary Review, and Happano.org in Japan. Her work for the Mexican monthly news magazine Gatopardo was nominated for the Simon Bolivar Award, Colombia's top journalism prize, and anthologized in Las Mejores Crónicas de Gatopardo (Random House Mondadori, 2006). Born in Bogota, Colombia and raised in Toronto, Canada, Delgado-Kling now splits her time between Boca Raton, FL and New York City. To learn more, please visit PaulaDelgadoKling.com or follow her on Instagram @PaulaDelgadoKling. Connect with Paula Website: http://pauladelgadokling.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091961238236 Twitter: https://twitter.com/ColombiaTalk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauladelgadokling/ Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Leonor-Story-Childhood-Paula-Delgado-Kling/dp/1682194477?crid=1M4ML48WOEEV7&keywords=leonor&qid=1683308327&s=books&sprefix=leonor,stripbooks,97&sr=1-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=ongoicom-20&linkId=986106192c06afd126c43cfe6d22043d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl   – 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