Let’s Talk Memoir Ronit Plank

Sonya Huber joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her approach to generating essays, working on many projects at once, writing as exposure therapy, how essays in a collection talk to each other, paying attention to what intrudes on us, living and working in the tangents, an accumulation of questions around a central theme, protecting people, crossing cultures and crossing classes, confronting ghosts, men and danger, being in relationship with writing, and her latest book, Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook
 
Also in this episode:
-writing backward
-questions of class
-narrative arc
 
Listen to Sonya Huber’s first Let’s Talk Memoir episode, #16: https://ronitplank.com/2022/11/15/lets-talk-memoir-season-2-episode-1-ft-sonya-huber/
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Bird by Bird Anne Lamott
Dog Flowers by Danielle Geller
Nola Face by Brooke Champagne
 
Sonya Huber is the author of eight books, including the new essay collection, Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook as well as the writing guide, Voice First: A Writer’s Manifesto, and an award-winning essay collection on chronic pain, Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a Nervous System. Her other books include the Supremely Tiny Acts: A Memoir in a Day, Opa Nobody, Cover Me: A Health Insurance Memoir, and The Backwards Research Guide for Writers. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and other outlets. She teaches at Fairfield University and in the Fairfield low-residency MFA program.

Connect with Sonya:
Website: www.sonyahuber.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonyahuber/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sonya.huber
Substack: https://sonyahuber.substack.com/
Books available here: https://bookshop.org/lists/sonya-huber-s-books
 
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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
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Follow Ronit:
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Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography
Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers

Hyeseung Song joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about being raised by a “beautiful but domineering” mother, breaking free from a legacy of self-worth via external achievements, writing complicated mothers, making the switch from memoir-in-essays to linear memoir, allowing her mother to “speak” for herself, the intersection or mental health, race, and racism, intergenerational trauma and engaging with pain, gaining the distance and time necessary to tell our stories, and her memoir Docile: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl.
Also in this episode:
-self-expansion
-a life of art-making
-forgiving yourself
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
Fierce Attachments by Vivian Gornick
They Called Us Exceptional by Prachi Gupta
What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo
 
Hyeseung Song is a first-generation Korean American writer and painter. She lives and works in New York City. 
 
Connect with Hyeseung:
Website: www.hyeseungsong.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hyeseungs
Twitter: https://x.com/hyeseungs
Get Docile: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Docile/Hyeseung-Song/9781668003664
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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

Justin Billmeier joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about his experience directing and producing audiobooks for a major publishing house, recording equipment costs and considerations for the indie memoirist, audiobook coaching and guidance, and the many components that go into a successful audiobook including story delivery, posture, pacing, script-marking, background noise, enunciation and much more. 
Also in this episode:
-normalizing smaller presses
-the reality about distribution and marketing
-the post production process 
Justin Billmeier is a seasoned audiobook producer with over 15 years of industry experience and the founder of Narrative Waves. He has directed titles for best-selling authors and managed full post-production for numerous acclaimed works. With a background as a Silicon Valley product designer, Justin brings a unique blend of technical and creative expertise to elevate storytelling in every project.
 
Connect with Justin:
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinbillmeier/
Website: https://narrativewaves.com/
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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

Meg Kissinger joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing two siblings to suicide, using her skills as a journalist on her own family, America’s failed mental health system, stripping away prejudice about people with mental illness, the toxicity of shame, being curious and nonjudgmental, growing up with a sense of anxiety and vigilance, writing about people who’ve suffered with love, and her memoir While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence.
 
Also in this episode:
-false starts
-forgiveness
-depicting the dualities and complexities of those we love
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Educated by Tara Westover
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr
Never Simple by Liz Scheier
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
 
Meg Kissinger, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and author, will help you see and think about people with mental illness in a new light. Her engaging memoir, “While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence,” has been praised for its incisive reporting, boundless compassion and surprising humor. It was named as an editors choice by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Amazon, Goodreads and Independent Booksellers Association. Audible chose it as the Best of the Year. 
Kissinger spent more than two decades traveling across the country to report on our nation’s failed mental health system, winning dozens of national awards. She is a popular speaker at universities, civic organizations and corporate events. She taught investigative reporting at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and is a trainer for the school’s Dart Center on Trauma and Journalism. 
Kissinger lives in Milwaukee, Wis., along the shores of Lake Michigan, her favorite place to plunge, even on the coldest day in January. 
 
Connect with Meg:
Website: megkissinger.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kissingermeg
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meg.kissinger
X: https://x.com/megkissinger1
Meg’s Book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250793775/whileyouwereout
 
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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

Joseph Lezza joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing loved ones, panic disorder and the stigma around anxiety, anger, shame, and the grieving process, discovering the genre he needed while at an MFA program, lyric essay, how story dictates form, what we can’t shake, and his memoir I'm Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss.
 
Also in this episode:
-grief as a shapeshifter
-memoir in essays
-gathering stories
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights by Joan Didion 
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 
Born to Be Public by Greg Mania 
On Looking b Lia Purpura 
The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt 
High Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez 
Brown Neon by Raquel Gutiérrez 
Congratulations! The Best is Over by R. Eric Thomas 
The Groom Will Keep His Name by Matt Ortile 
Also, some great craft books:
Bending Genre by Nicole Walker, Margot Singer
The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate
Crafting the Personal Essay by  Dinty W. Moore
Halls of Fame by John D'Agata

April 24, 2024
Joseph Lezza is a writer in New York, NY with an MFA in creative writing from The University of Texas at El Paso. His debut memoir in essays, I'm Never Fine: Scenes and Spasms on Loss (Vine Leaves Press), was a finalist for the 2021 Prize Americana in Prose and was named by Buzzfeed LGBTQ+ and Lambda Literary as a "Most Anticipated 2023 Release." His work has been featured in, among others, Longreads, Occulum, Variant Literature, The Hopper, West Trade Review, and Santa Fe Writers Project. His website is www.josephlezza.com and you can find him on all the socials @lezzdoothis.
Connect with Joseph:
Website: www.josephlezza.com
Social Media: https://linktr.ee/josephlezza
Substack: https://ladyindread.substack.com/
 
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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

Deesha Dyer joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her rise in the Obama White House and how imposter syndrome followed her up the ranks, tone policing and microaggressions, how her identity as a Black woman was weaponized in the workplace, engaging her inner child to heal, finding internal freedom and forgiving ourselves, how being yourself takes a while, self-care when writing, honoring our accomplishments and ourselves, and her memoir Undiplomatic: How My Attitude Created the Best Kind of Trouble.
 
Also in this episode:
- hustling for our books 
-recognizing our accomplishments
-the right we all have to speak our truths
 
Books mentioned in this episode:
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
Gal: A True Story by Ruthie Bolton
Books by bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Tarana Burke

Deesha Dyer is an award-winning community organizer, event strategist, and speaker who specializes in transforming ideas into causes that create tangible change. A 2019 Resident Fellow for the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, her career and mission reflects an unwavering passion for servant leadership and social justice. Her journey began at a community college and led to her role as Social Secretary for the Obama White House. In this role, she planned the historic visit of Pope Francis; State Dinners with leaders from around the world; and performances by Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, and more. Dyer was named one of Marie Claire’s new guard of women changing the world, the Root’s most influential African-Americans, and one of Washington DC's "Women of Excellence." Among her nonprofit enterprises is beGirl.world, which empowers teen girls through global education and travel. Her memoir UNDIPLOMATIC: HOW MY ATTITUDE CREATED THE BEST KIND OF TROUBLE is due out April 23, 2024.
Connect with Deesha:
Website: www.deeshadyer.com
Instagram: instagram.com/deedyer267
X: twitter.com/DeeshaDyer
Facebook: facebook.com/deesha34
Get Deesha’s Book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/undiplomatic-the-attitude-that-created-the-best-kind-of-trouble-deesha-dyer/20605019
 
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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