Ronit Plank's Blog, page 2
September 30, 2025
Episode 203 ft. Gina Tron
Gina Tron joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about coming of age in the aftermath of the Columbine massacre, the myth of the bullied school shooter, revenge fantasies, her advocacy work, capturing the 1990s, connecting a personal story through journalism and interviews, being a suspected school shooter, when a publisher gets cold feet, leaning into shame, not wanting to be a problem author, confronting the dark and the embarrassing, giving ourselves grace, being as honest and vulnerable as possible, trying to paint the most accurate version of ourselves, and her new memoir Suspect.
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Episode 203 ft. Gina Tron Sep 30, 2025
Gina Tron joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about coming of age in the aftermath of the Columbine massacre, the myth of the bullied school shooter, revenge fantasies, her advocacy work, capturing the 1990s, connecting a personal story through journalism and...
Episode 202 ft. Jocelyn Jane Cox Sep 23, 2025
Jocelyn Jane Cox joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the challenges and guilt around caretaking, her childhood experience as a competitive figure skater, telling a story in the structure of a day, using the directed “you” in a book, writing about what has...
Episode 201 ft. Gaar Adams Sep 16, 2025
Gaar Adams joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about living amongst and depicting queer and migrant communities in the Gulf states, falling in love with Arabic literature and translation, the undeniable parallels between queerness and migration, exploring...
The post Episode 203 ft. Gina Tron appeared first on Ronit Plank.
September 22, 2025
Episode 202 ft. Jocelyn Jane Cox
Jocelyn Jane Cox joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the challenges and guilt around caretaking, her childhood experience as a competitive figure skater, telling a story in the structure of a day, using the directed “you” in a book, writing about what has shaped us and played a role in the story we are trying to tell, using Post-It Notes, ordering our backstory, listmaking a low pressure way to get material on the page, as the process of adding and subtracting, exploring divisions within ourselves, developing and exploring metaphor in our narratives, and her new memoir Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice.
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Episode 202 ft. Jocelyn Jane Cox Sep 23, 2025
Jocelyn Jane Cox joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the challenges and guilt around caretaking, her childhood experience as a competitive figure skater, telling a story in the structure of a day, using the directed “you” in a book, writing about what has...
Episode 201 ft. Gaar Adams Sep 16, 2025
Gaar Adams joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about living amongst and depicting queer and migrant communities in the Gulf states, falling in love with Arabic literature and translation, the undeniable parallels between queerness and migration, exploring...
Episode 200 ft. Bridey Thelen-Heidel Sep 9, 2025
Bridey Thelen-Heidel joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up with a mom who was addicted to everything including dangerous men, revisiting and writing about a traumatic childhood forty plus decades later, when you have to let go to protect...
The post Episode 202 ft. Jocelyn Jane Cox appeared first on Ronit Plank.
September 16, 2025
Episode 201 ft. Gaar Adams
Gaar Adams joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about living amongst and depicting queer and migrant communities in the Gulf states, falling in love with Arabic literature and translation, the undeniable parallels between queerness and migration, exploring subversive acts, capturing ourselves in less than flattering ways, combating self-censorship, concern with how loved ones might perceive us, protecting our memory, calibrating interiority, writing into periods of discomfort, the importance of chosen families, transcribing and organizing vast amounts of material and interviews, allowing for a multiplicity of voices, intentional interrogation of stories that aren’t being told, and his new book Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 201 ft. Gaar Adams Sep 16, 2025
Gaar Adams joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about living amongst and depicting queer and migrant communities in the Gulf states, falling in love with Arabic literature and translation, the undeniable parallels between queerness and migration, exploring...
Episode 200 ft. Bridey Thelen-Heidel Sep 9, 2025
Bridey Thelen-Heidel joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up with a mom who was addicted to everything including dangerous men, revisiting and writing about a traumatic childhood forty plus decades later, when you have to let go to protect...
Episode 199 ft. Sarah Boon Sep 4, 2025
Sarah Boon joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing elements of a memoir to reveal themselves, radical acceptance of what we need as a writer and what we can feasibly accomplish with the resources we have, getting to know who we are as creatives,...
The post Episode 201 ft. Gaar Adams appeared first on Ronit Plank.
September 9, 2025
Episode 200 ft. Bridey Thelen-Heidel
Bridey Thelen-Heidel joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up with a mom who was addicted to everything including dangerous men, revisiting and writing about a traumatic childhood forty plus decades later, when you have to let go to protect yourself, choosing to balance the heaviness and dysfunction in a story with pop culture and lightness, writing creatively with an audience in mind, speaking for the child you once were, being true to your past experience, learning to let go and trust editorial feedback, knowing the ending of your book as you live it, literary devices and motifs, being a hybrid author and her 3 Cs for rocking book promotion, grieving the mother she never had, and her award-winning memoir Bright Eyes.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 200 ft. Bridey Thelen-Heidel Sep 9, 2025
Bridey Thelen-Heidel joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up with a mom who was addicted to everything including dangerous men, revisiting and writing about a traumatic childhood forty plus decades later, when you have to let go to protect...
Episode 199 ft. Sarah Boon Sep 4, 2025
Sarah Boon joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing elements of a memoir to reveal themselves, radical acceptance of what we need as a writer and what we can feasibly accomplish with the resources we have, getting to know who we are as creatives,...
Episode 198 ft. Michael Jamin Sep 4, 2025
Michael Jamin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about his career as a TV writer, moving from mimicking to discovering and trusting our own voice, allowing our style to evolve, making sense of ourselves through art, imposter syndrome and feeling displeased...
The post Episode 200 ft. Bridey Thelen-Heidel appeared first on Ronit Plank.
September 4, 2025
Episode 199 ft. Sarah Boon
Sarah Boon joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing elements of a memoir to reveal themselves, radical acceptance of what we need as a writer and what we can feasibly accomplish with the resources we have, getting to know who we are as creatives, publishing with an academic press and the peer review process, navigating refusals, struggling with narrative arc, her experience as a woman and a scientist doing research in remote locations, breaking away from science writing to write a science memoir, living with bipolar II and anxiety, the effect of mental illness on creative process, being gentler with ourselves, pivoting from working alone to sharing a personal story, and her new memoir Meltdown: The Making and Breaking of a Field Scientist.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 199 ft. Sarah Boon Sep 4, 2025
Sarah Boon joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing elements of a memoir to reveal themselves, radical acceptance of what we need as a writer and what we can feasibly accomplish with the resources we have, getting to know who we are as creatives,...
Episode 198 ft. Michael Jamin Sep 4, 2025
Michael Jamin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about his career as a TV writer, moving from mimicking to discovering and trusting our own voice, allowing our style to evolve, making sense of ourselves through art, imposter syndrome and feeling displeased...
Episode 197 ft. Melissa Fraterrigo Sep 2, 2025
Melissa Fraterrigo joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the personal and emotional toll of being female, becoming a mother and watching her daughters navigate culture, making sense of our world through memoir and essay, discovering a softness for the...
The post Episode 199 ft. Sarah Boon appeared first on Ronit Plank.
Episode 198 ft. Michael Jamin
Michael Jamin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about his career as a TV writer, moving from mimicking to discovering and trusting our own voice, allowing our style to evolve, making sense of ourselves through art, imposter syndrome and feeling displeased with our work, comedy writing, performing staged readings to test out material, building a bridge between separate sections of our story, infusing comedy with drama, asking permission from children before we write about them, breathing life into relationships on the page for readers to witness, showing up generously for newer writers, getting a moment to land, and his memoir A Paper Orchestra.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 199 ft. Sarah Boon Sep 4, 2025
Sarah Boon joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing elements of a memoir to reveal themselves, radical acceptance of what we need as a writer and what we can feasibly accomplish with the resources we have, getting to know who we are as creatives,...
Episode 198 ft. Michael Jamin Sep 4, 2025
Michael Jamin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about his career as a TV writer, moving from mimicking to discovering and trusting our own voice, allowing our style to evolve, making sense of ourselves through art, imposter syndrome and feeling displeased...
Episode 197 ft. Melissa Fraterrigo Sep 2, 2025
Melissa Fraterrigo joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the personal and emotional toll of being female, becoming a mother and watching her daughters navigate culture, making sense of our world through memoir and essay, discovering a softness for the...
The post Episode 198 ft. Michael Jamin appeared first on Ronit Plank.
September 2, 2025
Episode 197 ft. Melissa Fraterrigo
Melissa Fraterrigo joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the personal and emotional toll of being female, becoming a mother and watching her daughters navigate culture, making sense of our world through memoir and essay, discovering a softness for the younger versions of ourselves, when the fictional world doesn’t hold our attention, processing different time periods, making sure there are universal truths in memoir as well as our own story, not inviting people others into the space while we’re drafting, memoir as permission to explore our own life, taking the time to get to know ourselves and our process, how are we changed by writing, and her new memoir The Perils of Girlhood.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 197 ft. Melissa Fraterrigo Sep 2, 2025
Melissa Fraterrigo joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the personal and emotional toll of being female, becoming a mother and watching her daughters navigate culture, making sense of our world through memoir and essay, discovering a softness for the...
Episode 196 ft. Gail Eisnitz Aug 28, 2025
Gail Eisnitz joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about structuring her memoir around her pursuit of answers to a lifelong medical mystery, coming to terms with her own humanness, writing about her career in animal advocacy, exposing the underbelly of the meat...
Episode 195 ft. Alex DiFrancesco Aug 26, 2025
Alex DiFrancesco joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about using rituals and tarot as a framework in a manuscript, Italian folk tradition as a spiritual outlet, the sometimes difficult path to publishing, being sued for defamation, finding a publisher brave...
The post Episode 197 ft. Melissa Fraterrigo appeared first on Ronit Plank.
August 28, 2025
Episode 196 ft. Gail Eisnitz
Gail Eisnitz joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about structuring her memoir around her pursuit of answers to a lifelong medical mystery, coming to terms with her own humanness, writing about her career in animal advocacy, exposing the underbelly of the meat industry and effecting change for millions of animals, working on difficult and hard-to-sell material, not sharing a book project with friends and loved ones until it’s complete, weathering a difficult submission process, allowing herself to soften emotionally, becoming more in touch with self-compassion, and her new memoir Out of Sightz: An Undercover Investigator’s Fight for Animal Rights and Her Own Survival.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 196 ft. Gail Eisnitz Aug 28, 2025
Gail Eisnitz joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about structuring her memoir around her pursuit of answers to a lifelong medical mystery, coming to terms with her own humanness, writing about her career in animal advocacy, exposing the underbelly of the meat...
Episode 195 ft. Alex DiFrancesco Aug 26, 2025
Alex DiFrancesco joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about using rituals and tarot as a framework in a manuscript, Italian folk tradition as a spiritual outlet, the sometimes difficult path to publishing, being sued for defamation, finding a publisher brave...
Episode 194 ft. Nina B. Lichtenstein Aug 21, 2025
Nina B. Lichtenstein joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing to metabolize, using body parts as portals, pivoting from academic writing to memoir, discovering an authentic writer’s voice, finding the right form as a neurodivergent writer, allowing...
The post Episode 196 ft. Gail Eisnitz appeared first on Ronit Plank.
August 26, 2025
Episode 195 ft. Alex DiFrancesco
Alex DiFrancesco joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about using rituals and tarot as a framework in a manuscript, Italian folk tradition as a spiritual outlet, the sometimes difficult path to publishing, being sued for defamation, finding a publisher brave enough to publish our work, writing about sexual assault, thinking in sections, using books as inspiration, complex PTSD, hiding who we are, alters, saints, and card divination, taking it slow, keep our body in working order, making our own magic, and their new memoir Breaking the Curse.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 195 ft. Alex DiFrancesco Aug 26, 2025
Alex DiFrancesco joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about using rituals and tarot as a framework in a manuscript, Italian folk tradition as a spiritual outlet, the sometimes difficult path to publishing, being sued for defamation, finding a publisher brave...
Episode 194 ft. Nina B. Lichtenstein Aug 21, 2025
Nina B. Lichtenstein joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing to metabolize, using body parts as portals, pivoting from academic writing to memoir, discovering an authentic writer’s voice, finding the right form as a neurodivergent writer, allowing...
Episode 193 ft. Sonita Alizada Aug 19, 2025
Sonita Alizada joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about surviving the Taliban in Afghanistan, speaking up against forced child marriage and racism, finding a voice through music, when we have nothing else to help us survive but art, protesting against an...
The post Episode 195 ft. Alex DiFrancesco appeared first on Ronit Plank.
August 21, 2025
Episode 194 ft. Nina B. Lichtenstein
Nina B. Lichtenstein joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing to metabolize, using body parts as portals, pivoting from academic writing to memoir, discovering an authentic writer’s voice, finding the right form as a neurodivergent writer, allowing various stories to cross-pollinate, opening doors with exploration, transforming shame into a shared experience, writing about the memories lodged within our bodies, being a Viking Jewess, the body as record keeper, the complex emotions around shame, moving from reactive and blameful writing to discovery, giving ourselves permission to tell our story, and her new memoir Body: My Life in Parts.
Listen on Apple Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 194 ft. Nina B. Lichtenstein Aug 21, 2025
Nina B. Lichtenstein joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing to metabolize, using body parts as portals, pivoting from academic writing to memoir, discovering an authentic writer’s voice, finding the right form as a neurodivergent writer, allowing...
Episode 193 ft. Sonita Alizada Aug 19, 2025
Sonita Alizada joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about surviving the Taliban in Afghanistan, speaking up against forced child marriage and racism, finding a voice through music, when we have nothing else to help us survive but art, protesting against an...
Episode 192 ft. Maura Casey Aug 14, 2025
Maura Casey joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the toll longterm illness has on a family, her sister Ellen’s kidney disease and researching the history of kidney transplants for her memoir, when alcohol is a member of the family, growing up with a...
The post Episode 194 ft. Nina B. Lichtenstein appeared first on Ronit Plank.
