Let's Talk Memoir

Episode 4 ft. Ellen Blum Barish

Brooke Warner

Ellen Blum Barish joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about becoming a memoirist after a career as a journalist and how that deepened her love of writing, the power of working on smaller pieces as we craft our memoir, and finding the themes and structure in our story.

Also in this episode:

  • Ellen’s Eight Essential Elements of Essay
  • Writing about the people we love
  • Knowing where to begin and where to end

Ellen Blum Barish is the author of Seven Springs: A Memoir (Shanti Arts, 2021) and Views from the Home Office Window (Adams Street Publishing, 2007). You can find her work in Brevity’s Blog, Full Grown People, Literary Mama, Tablet and The Chicago Tribune. Many of her essays have aired on Chicago Public Radio and have been told on storytelling stages around Chicago. Ellen founded the literary publication Thread, which earned four notables in Best American Essays and has taught writing at Northwestern University where she earned a master’s in journalism. She works privately with writers and teaches writing workshops on essay collections and memoir.

Seven Springs: A Memoir
Seven Springs: A Memoir (Audiobook on Amazon)

https://ellenblumbarish.com
Instagram
Facebook

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Episode 230 ft. Mallary Tenore Tarpley

Episode 230 ft. Mallary Tenore Tarpley

Mallary Tenore Tarpley joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the middle place between acute sickness and full recovery, living with the imprints of a disorder, resisting thinking in black and white, the memoir plus genre, making memoir reportage and...

Episode 229 ft. Karen Palmer

Episode 229 ft. Karen Palmer

Karen Palmer joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about changing her identity to escape a dangerous ex-husband, being stalked, the consequences of deciding to disappear, coming to grips with the experience of domestic abuse, mistaking grief for maturity, telling...

Episode 228 ft. Dorothy Roberts

Episode 228 ft. Dorothy Roberts

Dorothy Roberts joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her father’s interviews beginning in the 1930s with over 500 back-white couples who crossed the color line in Chicago, moving to memoir to explore more personal experiences and feelings, growing up in a...