Mothers who go missing and what’s ours to tell

Mothers who go missing and what’s ours to tell Filmmaker Reed Harkness of Sam Now is my guest My latest guest on Let’s Talk Memoir is Reed Harkness whose new documentary is Sam Now which traces Reed and his younger brother Sam as they set off to find out why their mother has gone missing […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 45: Season 2 Is Wrapped!

EPISODE 45 In this episode of Let’s Talk Memoir, reflections on a few most-asked memoir questions, information on Season 3, and where to find Let’s Talk Memoir writing resources and updates while the show is on Summer hiatus. Thank you to Season 2’s generous guests for your insight and clarity, and to the listeners who […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 44 ft. Reed Harkness

EPISODE 44 Reed Harkness joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about a mother who goes missing, intergenerational trauma, moving into discomfort in service of truth-telling, what’s ours to tell, masculinity and brotherhood, the hero’s journey as a template for story arc, and what he’s  learned about vulnerability from documenting 25 years of his family’s […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 43 ft. Gayle Brandeis

EPISODE 43 Gayle Brandeis joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing her mother to suicide and finding a way to write about it, her work across genres, leaning into what makes us unique on the page, trusting ourselves to discover what our work wants to become, why there is no better time to […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 42 ft. Jennifer Lunden

EPISODE 42 Jennifer Lunden joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her experience with ME/CFS and her new braided memoir American Breakdown: Our Ailing Nation, My Body’s Revolt, and the Nineteenth-Century Woman Who Brought Me Back to Life, writing about trauma, the long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences on health, misogyny in medicine, using […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 41 ft. Camille T. Dungy

EPISODE 41 Camille T. Dungy joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about who speaks about the natural world and how, erasure in life and in art, the white gaze, reviewing the cannon of environmental literature with a critical eye, writing about motherhood, manuscript-cutting, leaning into humor and nuance in our work, and her new […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 40 ft. Sarah Birnbach

EPISODE 40 Sarah Birnbach joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about grief and the wished-for mother, how Jewish prayer anchored her as she mourned the father she adored, birth order and responsibility, how spirituality has shaped her life, deciding how much to share about her painful relationship with her mother, and publishing her memoir […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 39 ft. Candace Cahill

EPISODE 39 Candace Cahill joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about placing her newborn son for adoption and meeting him as an adult shortly before his death, writing for clarity, negotiating guilt, finding compassion for yourself, writing as a process for grieving, and her memoir Goodbye Again.   Listen On iTunes Listen On Spotify […]

Let’s Talk Memoir – Episode 38 ft. Maggie Smith

EPISODE 38 Maggie Smith joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about having and holding boundaries in our work and in our lives, trusting our instincts as writers, taking risks, telling the truth as we know it, allowing our material to dictate form, how our work changes over time, and her highly anticipated memoir You […]

My book sold out last night 📘

My book sold out last night 📘 When do writers become writers? I’ve been thinking about this question a bit especially since I’ve just done two interviews about my new story collection with writers I admire and respect, for literary magazines I love. I am a writing late bloomer in many ways – I wasn’t […]