Let’s Talk Memoir Ronit Plank

Lisa Keefauver MSW and host of the popular podcast Grief is a Sneaky Bitch joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about what happens when we revisit our stories to more deeply understand what has happened in our lives, a look at ambiguous loss, the shoulds and shouldn'ts about grief we tell ourselves that can cause us unnecessary suffering, grief brain, memoir writing for insight and self-compassion, earning reader trust, deep mindfulness, pausing even when we have deadlines, and exercises to calm our nervous system from her new book Grief is a Sneaky Bitch.
 
Also in this episode:
-showing our full selves on the page
-soothing the nervous system
-how we speak to ourselves 
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Fifty-Seven Fridays by Myra Sack
Finding the Words by Colin Campbell
What Looks Like Bravery by Laurel Braitman
When She Comes Back by Ronit Plank
 
Lisa Keefauver, MSW is a grief activist and the founder of Reimagining Grief. Lisa has more than two decades of professional experiences with grief and loss; working as a social worker, narrative therapist, and educator within multiple settings from non-profits to corporations and universities. Lisa's wisdom and understanding of grief is also embodied from her personal losses including the death of her husband in 2011.
 
Lisa's grief advocacy has inspired her to create and host the top-rated podcast, Grief is a Sneaky Bitch; serve as an adjunct professor of Loss and Grief at the University of Texas at Austin; act as an organizational consultant to facilitate grief-smart organizations; write/appear as a thought leader across media platforms. Watch her popular TEDx Talk, Why Knowing More About Grief Can Make it Suck Less. You can pre-order her heavily anticipated book, Grief Is A Sneaky Bitch: An Uncensored Guide to Navigating Loss now. It arrives in bookstores June 4, 2024.
 
Connect with Lisa:
Website: www.lisakeefauver.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lisakeefauvermsw/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisakeefauvermsw/
Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grief-is-a-sneaky-bitch/id1474558908
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPQt3ARzpzeRl5ckN1k-h-g
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lisakeefauvermsw
Get the book on Bookshop
Get the book on Amazon
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Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, 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 lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers and memoir coach joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about helping memoirists become their own good editors, keeping both the vertical and linear in mind when writing our stories, the importance of breaks when working on traumatic material, how writing puts our experience in perspective, finding a writing cohort, leaving bad writing groups, what we remember vs. what really happened, why truth is complicated, and the evolution of memoir.
 
Also in this episode:
-her latest class offerings
-fending off the inner critic
-the promise we make to the reader
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
-Bluets by Maggie Nelson
-In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
-You Could Make this Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
-Wild by Cheryl Strayed
-Books by Abigail Thomas
 
Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, is the author of award-winning memoirs Don't Call Me Mother and Song of the Plains, and two books on craft The Power of Memoir, & Journey of Memoir. She co-authored Breaking Ground on Your Memoir and Magic of Memoir & co-teaches Write Your Memoir in Six Months with Brooke Warner. A memoir coach for 30 years, she helps writers find their voice and get their story into the world. Linda Joy’s prize-winning first novel, The Forger of Marseille was released in 2023.
 
Connect with Linda:
https://www.namw.org/
http://lindajoymyersauthor.com
https://www.facebook.com/linda.j.myers
https://www.instagram.com/lindajoymyersauthor/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindajoy/
Get Linda’s Book
 
—
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, 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 lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Hannah Sward joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how she never wanted to be a writer let alone write a memoir, attachment theory and being abandoned by her mother, creating boundaries with loved ones, compassion for the children we were, her experience writing about working in the sex trade and being addicted to crystal meth, when acceptance is a form of forgiveness, feeling overwhelmed by feedback, how structure can be confounding, reclaiming our voice, story, and agency, creating a stark narrative, and her memoir Strip.
 
Also in this episode:
-comparing ourselves to other writers
-writing every day 
-feeling free to write the sh*ttiest sh*t
-trusting ourselves
 
Books mentioned in this episode: 
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg 
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
 
Hannah Sward, daughter of the late poet Robert Sward, is the IAN awarding-winning author of Strip: A Memoir. Strip, Swards first book, has received the attention of authors such as Nobel Prize winner, J.M. Coetzee, Melissa Broder, and NYT Bestselling novelist Caroline Leavitt who called Sward, “One of the most moving and honest memoir writers. So eloquent, so brave.”  Sward has appeared on NBC CA Live, C-SPAN BookTV, dozens of podcasts, panels, and in magazines and newspapers such as the LA Times and Recovery Today. Sward lives in Los Angeles where she coaches writers and is working on her next book. To find out more hannahsward.com
Connect with Hannah:
Website: https://www.hannahsward.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/hannahswardauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannahswardauthor
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@hannahswardauthor
Bookshop.org:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/strip-a-memoir-hannah-sward/18101649?ean=9781948954679
Amazon: https://a.co/d/dLQD8rP

—
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, 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 lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Anne Gudger joins Let’s Talk memoir for a conversation about loss and choosing love every day, giving grief a microphone, voice-driven writing and breaking structure rules, essays for platform-building, holding both the raw experience and the long view, the legacy of shame and becoming unstuck, shifting energy in our bodies, and the metaphysical and spiritual components of her memoir The Fifth Chamber.
 
Also in this episode:
-journaling as source material
-normalizing grief
-taking care ourselves when working on painful material
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Group by Christie Tate
 
Anne Gudger is a memoir/essay writer who writes hard and loves harder. She’s the author of THE FIFTH CHAMBER, published by Jaded Ibis Press September 2023. She's been published in multiple journals including The Rumpus, Real Simple Magazine, Tupelo Quarterly, Sweet Lit, Cutthroat, CutBank, Columbia Journal, The Normal School, Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. She's won four essay contests and has been a Best of the Net Nominee twice. March 2020 she and her daughter founded Coffee and Grief: a community that includes a monthly reading series. Everybody grieves and when we share grief we feel less alone. She also co-created the podcast: Coffee, Grief, and Gratitude. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her beloved husband. 
 
Connect with Anne:
Website: https://www.annegudger.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annegudger/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anne.gudger
Get Anne’s Book: https://bit.ly/3nZIvEy
Write Your Grief Out: https://writeyourgriefout.thinkific.com/courses/writeyourgriefoutOct
 
—
Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, 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 lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank
Newsletter sign-up: https://ronitplank.com/#signup
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Sara Weiss joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the path to her career in publishing and her role as Nonfiction Director and Ballantine, what memoir writers always need to ask themselves, her interest in memoir with purpose, the blockbuster model and the editorial decision making process, building a writing community, how many books we can realistically sell, making our work ready, and the pace of publishing these days.   Also in this episode: -the importance of voice, platform, and hook -selling on proposals and fulls -how all writers need to hustle   Book mentioned in this episode: Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett Wild by Cheryl Strayed Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo The In-Between by Hadley Vlahos R.N. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth GIlbert Educated by Tara Westover   Sara Weiss (she/her) is the Editorial Director for Nonfiction at Ballantine, where she focuses mostly on nonfiction, while also publishing select fiction titles. She’s been privileged to publish bestselling and critically acclaimed authors such as Linda Holmes, R. Eric Thomas, Emily Nagoski, Stephanie Foo, Hadley Vlahos, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Cody Rigsby, Hannah Gadsby, Annie Hartnett, Lilly Singh, and Lauren Graham. Her upcoming list includes NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor’s memoir, Don’t Forget and the novel, Blue Sisters, by Coco Mellors.  Connect with Sara: X: https://x.com/SaraWeissWriter Links: https://linktr.ee/SaraWeissWriter More about Ballantine:https://www.randomhousebooks.com/imprint/ballantine-books/     — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, 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 lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com   Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd   Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Maureen Murdock joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how myths help excavate our stories, memoir as a way to reclaim the past,  invisible primary patterns in the psyche, letting ourselves meander and reflect, using process journals to excavate fears about being vulnerable, allowing structure to emerge, a favorite prompt of hers, and her latest book Mythmaking: Self-Discovery and the Timeless Art of Memoir
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The Color of Water by James McBride
Smile by Sarah Ruhl
Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal by Jeanette Winterson
The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
 
Maureen Murdock, Ph.D. is the author of her new book Mythmaking: Self-Discovery and the Timeless Art of Memoir and the author of the best-selling book, The Heroine’s Journey, which explores the rich territory of the feminine psyche and has been translated into twenty languages. Maureen is also author of Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory; Fathers’ Daughters: Breaking the Ties that Bind; Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children; and The Heroine’s Journey Workbook. She is the editor of an anthology entitled Monday Morning Memoirs: Women in the Second Half of Life and teaches memoir for the International Women’s Writing Guild and in Pacifica Graduate Institute’s program, Writing Down the Soul. Maureen was Chair and Core Faculty of the M.A. Counseling Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She has written pieces for the Huffington Post on criminal justice and volunteers for the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) with inmates at Lompoc Federal Prison.
 
Connect with Maureen:
Website: www.maureenmurdock.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murdockmaureen
Facebook: www.facebook.com/maureen.murdock/author
Get Maureen’s Book: https://www.shambhala.com/mythmaking.html
 
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Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, 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 lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.
More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com
 
Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd
 
Follow Ronit:
https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/
https://twitter.com/RonitPlank
https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank
 
Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers