My new book
It seems like only yesterday I had months before my short story collection Home is a Made-Up Place would be out but now it’s in less than 2 weeks! I can hardly believe it but am so excited my second book will be out on 2.28.23. Pre-orders are in full swing with the collection holding fast to its spot as a #1 new release in short story collections and anthologies on Amazon as of this post.
Of my collection Marie Helene-Bertino, author of Parakeet and 2 A.M. at the Cat’s Pajamas writes, “Home is a Made-Up Place expertly plumbs the complicated and surprising depths of motherhood and daughterhood while introducing characters who thrill and linger. A tender and exacting debut from an exciting new voice.”
And Cate Kennedy, author of Like a House on Fire writes, “Stories that traverse the fraught territories between old conflicts and new starts, old patterns and uncomfortable realizations. Peopled by characters who are as complex and compromised as your own family, this is a lucid and compassionate collection by a writer to watch.”
If you’d like to order a copy visit: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/ or your favorite bookseller.
Events
–Thurs, March 9th – University Bookstore 6-7:30 “Writing Home” in conversation with S.L. Wisenberg, author of Holocaust Girls and The Wandering Womb among others. Sandi will lead a short workshop about writing home, we will read from our new books, and then do a Q and A. The bookstore will have copies of our books for sale and we will do a signing afterwards.
More info here
–Sat, March 11th – Bad Jimmy’s Brewery Ballard 6-9 music and reading with the bands A Murder at Baker Street and Furniture Girls and writers Andrew Bertaina, Alysica Calvert, Derek Delahunt, Jennifer Fliss, Chaitania Hein, David O’Leary, Jason Thornberry and me. There will be beer and we will have copies of our books for sale.
–Tues, April 4th Ravenna Third Place Books, Ravenna 6:45-8 I’ll be reading from Home is a Made-Up Place and doing a Q and A and signing afterward. This shop is close to my heart as it’s where I purchased almost all of my books during graduate school and wrote many of the stories in the collection while my kids were in school.
Find me at AWP
I will also be at AWP, the giant annual writing conference, which lucky for me is in Seattle this year.
– Saturday 3/11 at 9:00 I’m moderating “Neither the Madonna nor Mommy Dearest: How and Why to Write Real Mothers” with my co-panelists Gina Frangello, Hyeseung Song, Jeannine Ouellette, and Michelle Yang. This promises to be a smart, fast-paced, insightful discussion with a generous amount of time for Q and A afterwards.
Info/registration here:
– Friday 3/10 1-3 and Saturday 3/11 3-4 I’ll be at the Pacific MFA table with my books for sale and signing on Friday 3/10 1-3 and Saturday 3/11 3-4. Please come by and say hi!
Let’s Talk Memoir
There are now 29 episodes of my podcast Let’s Talk Memoir available featuring memoirists and writing teachers who share their advice, encouragement, and ideas about finding our voice, the ethics of writing about others, structuring our books, the power of dialogue, protecting our work from our own judgment, experimental forms and so much more. New episodes drop every Tuesday and if you already are a listener, I hope you’ll consider leaving a rating and review on Apple podcasts—takes 2 minutes and means so much.
Thank you for reading to the end, thank you for your support, thank you for being here! If you have ideas for Let’s Talk Memoir episodes, questions, or would like to get in touch, please email me at ronit (at) ronit plank (dot) com.
Until next month,
Ronit