Ronit Plank's Blog, page 7
February 27, 2025
Episode 153 ft. Sarah Jaffe
Sarah Jaffe joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing ourselves to be known on the page, learning how to pivot from journalism to the very personal, processing experiences through writing, being upended by grief, taking care of ourselves when writing about violence and terror, witnessing and giving voice to other people’s hardships with integrity and respect, becoming undone on the page, how we are haunted by the losses we live through, sculpting material down during revision, and her new book From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution in a World on Fire.
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Episode 153 ft. Sarah Jaffe Feb 27, 2025
Sarah Jaffe joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about allowing ourselves to be known on the page, learning how to pivot from journalism to the very personal, processing experiences through writing, being upended by grief, taking care of ourselves when writing...
Episode 152 ft. Susan Lieu Feb 25, 2025
Susan Lieu joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about realizing you’re an artist later in life, becoming a multi-hyphinate storyteller, being a mother when you never knew your own, piecing together a family story, feeling plagued by structure, sticking to the...
Episode 151 ft. Casey Mulligan Walsh Feb 18, 2025
Casey Mulligan Walsh joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the search for belonging in the wake of repeated loss, learning to live with grief alongside joy, finding a purpose for our story, homing in on the aboutness, patterns and themes in our memoir,...
The post Episode 153 ft. Sarah Jaffe appeared first on Ronit Plank.
February 25, 2025
Episode 152 ft. Susan Lieu
Susan Lieu joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about realizing you’re an artist later in life, becoming a multi-hyphinate storyteller, being a mother when you never knew your own, piecing together a family story, feeling plagued by structure, sticking to the throughline, writing residencies, writing down goals, deciding to stop searching for approval from loved ones and getting it for and from ourselves, accepting loved ones as they are, grief journeys, storytelling as closure, and her new memoir The Manicurist’s Daughter.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 152 ft. Susan Lieu Feb 25, 2025
Susan Lieu joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about realizing you’re an artist later in life, becoming a multi-hyphinate storyteller, being a mother when you never knew your own, piecing together a family story, feeling plagued by structure, sticking to the...
Episode 151 ft. Casey Mulligan Walsh Feb 18, 2025
Casey Mulligan Walsh joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the search for belonging in the wake of repeated loss, learning to live with grief alongside joy, finding a purpose for our story, homing in on the aboutness, patterns and themes in our memoir,...
Episode 150 ft. Barrie Miskin Feb 13, 2025
Barrie Miskin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the rare dissociative disorder she experienced while pregnant and her experience navigating the maternal and mental health care system, the guilt and shame so often connected to motherhood and womanhood,...
The post Episode 152 ft. Susan Lieu appeared first on Ronit Plank.
February 18, 2025
Episode 151 ft. Casey Mulligan Walsh
Casey Mulligan Walsh joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the search for belonging in the wake of repeated loss, learning to live with grief alongside joy, finding a purpose for our story, homing in on the aboutness, patterns and themes in our memoir, managing flashbacks and whether or not to use them, setting up the essential question for your book, whether or not to have a prologue, landing on the structure, how our writing impacts others, tightening work, consolidating scenes, and cutting where necessary, embracing life in its messy complexity, and her new memoir The Full Catastrophe: All I Ever Wanted, Everything I Feared.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 151 ft. Casey Mulligan Walsh Feb 18, 2025
Casey Mulligan Walsh joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the search for belonging in the wake of repeated loss, learning to live with grief alongside joy, finding a purpose for our story, homing in on the aboutness, patterns and themes in our memoir,...
Episode 150 ft. Barrie Miskin Feb 13, 2025
Barrie Miskin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the rare dissociative disorder she experienced while pregnant and her experience navigating the maternal and mental health care system, the guilt and shame so often connected to motherhood and womanhood,...
Episode 149 ft. Kanya D’Almeida Feb 11, 2025
Kanya D’Almeida joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her life changed when a manuscript by Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, a former member of the Black Panther Party and soldier in the Black Liberation Army showed up in an envelope on her doorstep in 2011,...
The post Episode 151 ft. Casey Mulligan Walsh appeared first on Ronit Plank.
February 13, 2025
Episode 150 ft. Barrie Miskin
Barrie Miskin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the rare dissociative disorder she experienced while pregnant and her experience navigating the maternal and mental health care system, the guilt and shame so often connected to motherhood and womanhood, the sweet spot of writing a year into her full recovery, balancing memoir writing with privacy and community, owning who we are and what we need to write, helping people feel seen, protection within the writing process, letting loved ones read our work before publication, writing a memoir in three months, and her new memoir Hell Gate Bridge.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 150 ft. Barrie Miskin Feb 13, 2025
Barrie Miskin joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the rare dissociative disorder she experienced while pregnant and her experience navigating the maternal and mental health care system, the guilt and shame so often connected to motherhood and womanhood,...
Episode 149 ft. Kanya D’Almeida Feb 11, 2025
Kanya D’Almeida joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her life changed when a manuscript by Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, a former member of the Black Panther Party and soldier in the Black Liberation Army showed up in an envelope on her doorstep in 2011,...
Episode 148 ft. Sari Botton Feb 6, 2025
Sari Botton joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about editing the magazines Adventures in Journalism, Memoir Land, and Oldster, her experience publishing on Substack, editing vs. generating material, putting ourselves in our story, wrestling with what to share,...
The post Episode 150 ft. Barrie Miskin appeared first on Ronit Plank.
February 11, 2025
Episode 149 ft. Kanya D’Almeida
Kanya D’Almeida joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her life changed when a manuscript by Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, a former member of the Black Panther Party and soldier in the Black Liberation Army showed up in an envelope on her doorstep in 2011, the decades he spent in the Pennsylvania prison system, how their experiences with political violence and civil war intersected, becoming his biographer and building comradeship across the bars, Sri Lanka’s history of conflict, channeling complicated feelings into dedication for writing a book, violence as the only language America knows how to speak, and her new book I Am Maroon: The True Story of an American Political Prisoner.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 149 ft. Kanya D’Almeida Feb 11, 2025
Kanya D’Almeida joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about how her life changed when a manuscript by Russell "Maroon" Shoatz, a former member of the Black Panther Party and soldier in the Black Liberation Army showed up in an envelope on her doorstep in 2011,...
Episode 148 ft. Sari Botton Feb 6, 2025
Sari Botton joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about editing the magazines Adventures in Journalism, Memoir Land, and Oldster, her experience publishing on Substack, editing vs. generating material, putting ourselves in our story, wrestling with what to share,...
Episode 147 ft. Eleanor Vincent Feb 4, 2025
Eleanor Vincent joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about trying to save her challenging high conflict marriage, autism in adults and Cassandra Syndrome, what to leave out of a book, self-revelation and honest grappling, the toll of masking autism, emotional...
The post Episode 149 ft. Kanya D’Almeida appeared first on Ronit Plank.
February 6, 2025
Episode 148 ft. Sari Botton
Sari Botton joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about editing the magazines Adventures in Journalism, Memoir Land, and Oldster, her experience publishing on Substack, editing vs. generating material, putting ourselves in our story, wrestling with what to share, creating safe boundaries, growing into the truest version of ourselves, vomit drafts, leaving the perfectionist out of the room, turning death on its head, shedding false identities, being our own best champion, and her mid-life coming of age memoir in episodes And You May Find Yourself…Confessions of a Late-Blooming Gen-X Weirdo.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 148 ft. Sari Botton Feb 6, 2025
Sari Botton joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about editing the magazines Adventures in Journalism, Memoir Land, and Oldster, her experience publishing on Substack, editing vs. generating material, putting ourselves in our story, wrestling with what to share,...
Episode 147 ft. Eleanor Vincent Feb 4, 2025
Eleanor Vincent joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about trying to save her challenging high conflict marriage, autism in adults and Cassandra Syndrome, what to leave out of a book, self-revelation and honest grappling, the toll of masking autism, emotional...
Episode 146 ft. Minelle Mahtani Jan 28, 2025
Minelle Mahtani joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the grief, love, loss, and repair in losing her mother while finding her voice, noncolonial ways of thinking about stories, writing about her Indian, Iranian, and Canadian identities, what the sound of...
The post Episode 148 ft. Sari Botton appeared first on Ronit Plank.
February 4, 2025
Episode 147 ft. Eleanor Vincent
Eleanor Vincent joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about trying to save her challenging high conflict marriage, autism in adults and Cassandra Syndrome, what to leave out of a book, self-revelation and honest grappling, the toll of masking autism, emotional abuse, careful framing of those we write about, using a sensitivity reader, support groups for neurodiverse spouses, our narrating personas, writing fearless first drafts, disguising identities and biographical details to protect those we write about, and her new memoir Disconnected.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 147 ft. Eleanor Vincent Feb 4, 2025
Eleanor Vincent joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about trying to save her challenging high conflict marriage, autism in adults and Cassandra Syndrome, what to leave out of a book, self-revelation and honest grappling, the toll of masking autism, emotional...
Episode 146 ft. Minelle Mahtani Jan 28, 2025
Minelle Mahtani joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the grief, love, loss, and repair in losing her mother while finding her voice, noncolonial ways of thinking about stories, writing about her Indian, Iranian, and Canadian identities, what the sound of...
Episode 145 ft. Jarod K. Anderson Jan 21, 2025
Jarod K. Anderson joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about changing our definition of what victory is based on what we can and can’t control, understanding our own minds and contextualizing ourselves in the world, his experience with chronic major depression,...
The post Episode 147 ft. Eleanor Vincent appeared first on Ronit Plank.
January 28, 2025
Episode 146 ft. Minelle Mahtani
Minelle Mahtani joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the grief, love, loss, and repair in losing her mother while finding her voice, noncolonial ways of thinking about stories, writing about her Indian, Iranian, and Canadian identities, what the sound of our voice is worth, paying attention to what we pay attention to, permission to be ourselves, having fun while trying to write precisely about grief, emotional trauma commonalities, her Canadian radio show Sense of Place, how kind we can bear to be to ourselves, listening as a political act, and her new memoir May it Have a Happy Ending.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 146 ft. Minelle Mahtani Jan 28, 2025
Minelle Mahtani joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the grief, love, loss, and repair in losing her mother while finding her voice, noncolonial ways of thinking about stories, writing about her Indian, Iranian, and Canadian identities, what the sound of...
Episode 145 ft. Jarod K. Anderson Jan 21, 2025
Jarod K. Anderson joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about changing our definition of what victory is based on what we can and can’t control, understanding our own minds and contextualizing ourselves in the world, his experience with chronic major depression,...
Episode 144 ft. Sarah Gormley Jan 14, 2025
Sarah Gormley joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about unpacking the baggage of self-doubt and imposter syndrome and moving toward self-love, shaping our memoirs into answers to the questions we have about our life, prioritizing pieces and elements of our...
The post Episode 146 ft. Minelle Mahtani appeared first on Ronit Plank.
January 21, 2025
Episode 145 ft. Jarod K. Anderson
Jarod K. Anderson joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about changing our definition of what victory is based on what we can and can’t control, understanding our own minds and contextualizing ourselves in the world, his experience with chronic major depression, the stigma around mental illness, the pain of abstraction and the concrete world, his podcast The Cryptonaturalist, privileging enthusiasm over fact, internal landscapes, the paradox of choice, large social media followings, the magic of the natural world around us, limitation as the engine for creativity, and his new memoir Something in the Woods Loves You.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 145 ft. Jarod K. Anderson Jan 21, 2025
Jarod K. Anderson joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about changing our definition of what victory is based on what we can and can’t control, understanding our own minds and contextualizing ourselves in the world, his experience with chronic major depression,...
Episode 144 ft. Sarah Gormley Jan 14, 2025
Sarah Gormley joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about unpacking the baggage of self-doubt and imposter syndrome and moving toward self-love, shaping our memoirs into answers to the questions we have about our life, prioritizing pieces and elements of our...
Episode 143 ft. Paula Whyman Jan 13, 2025
Paula Whyman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about getting out of our comfort zone, her attempt to restore native meadows in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, becoming obsessed with subjects and deep diving, writing about science and nature,...
The post Episode 145 ft. Jarod K. Anderson appeared first on Ronit Plank.
January 14, 2025
Episode 144 ft. Sarah Gormley
Sarah Gormley joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about unpacking the baggage of self-doubt and imposter syndrome and moving toward self-love, shaping our memoirs into answers to the questions we have about our life, prioritizing pieces and elements of our story that help show readers transformation, the messiness of mother-daughter relationships, including partners and family in our memoir narratives, cutting big chunks of our manuscripts out, themes as blueprints for our structure, trusting our body when we land somewhere right, realizing what our book is actually about, and her new memoir The Order of Things.
Listen on iTunes Listen on Spotify YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Episode 144 ft. Sarah Gormley Jan 14, 2025
Sarah Gormley joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about unpacking the baggage of self-doubt and imposter syndrome and moving toward self-love, shaping our memoirs into answers to the questions we have about our life, prioritizing pieces and elements of our...
Episode 143 ft. Paula Whyman Jan 13, 2025
Paula Whyman joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about getting out of our comfort zone, her attempt to restore native meadows in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, becoming obsessed with subjects and deep diving, writing about science and nature,...
Episode 142 ft. Eiren Caffall Jan 7, 2025
Eiren Caffall joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about her generational experience of loss, coming out of the shadows about having an ill body, how polycystic kidney disease (PKD) has shaped her and her family’s life, writing about the collapse of ecosystems...
The post Episode 144 ft. Sarah Gormley appeared first on Ronit Plank.
