Episodes

  • #181 From Ashram to Author: Finding the Transformative Thread in a Near Cult Memoir with Blair Glaser

    #181 From Ashram to Author: Finding the Transformative Thread in a Near Cult Memoir with Blair Glaser
    Mar 5 2026
    What happens when a story that could be told as trauma is instead shaped as triumph? Blair Glaser joins Estelle Erasmus to discuss her journey from a Catskills ashram in the 1990s to published author, and how she turned her time in a spiritual organization into her memoir, This Incredible Longing: Finding Myself in a Near Cult Experience. Rather than writing a simple escape narrative, she explores spiritual longing, group dynamics, depression, leadership, and the unexpected skills she developed inside a restrictive system. Instead of focusing solely on abuse and escape, Blair takes a nuanced approach, examining how that experience helped her find her voice, build professional skills, and ultimately claim her self worth. This episode is essential listening for memoir writers wrestling with how to structure layered stories, navigate family fallout, and uncover the thematic thread that elevates personal experience into crafted memoir. In this episode: Why her memoir rejects the typical "cult survivor" narrative and how she found unexpected gifts within a harmful experience [02:55] The rookie mistake many memoirists make and how she corrected it in revision [12:05] How the ashram taught her to rise through the ranks, create transformational programs, and become a writer, even while struggling with depression [16:00] Why she defines spiritual awakening as "a kind of madness" that rarely makes sense to the people around you [25:25] How to write about depression and suicidal ideation without deadening the reader [27:00] Why writing from therapeutic distance made revisiting trauma feel reflective, even sweet, rather than painful [27:20] Her best advice for writers who do not have journals to draw from [28:15] The family fallout that followed publication and why she chose authentic storytelling over protection [30:00] How indie publisher Heliotrope Books cha Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/AofD5lloQ_E About Blair: Blair Glaser is a writer and leadership consultant whose essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, People Magazine, Longreads, Oldster, Quartz, HuffPost, Inside Higher Ed, and others, as well as in literary magazines such as Brevity, Dorothy Parker's Ashes, In Short, and The Mantlepiece. She's read stories live at events such as Writer's Read, Generation Women, and The Woodstock Bookfest. Her debut memoir, This Incredible Longing, was published by Heliotrope in February 2026. She lives with her husband and dog-ter, Vanna White, in Venice Beach, CA. More can be found at www.blairglaser.com. Connect with Blair: Website: https://www.blairglaser.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blair_glaser/ Book: This Incredible Longing: Finding Myself in a Near Cult Experience: https://www.blairglaser.com/books Get More From Estelle Private Small-Group Memoir Class — Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: Why Your Memoir Draft Still Feels Flat: And How To Fix Ithttps://estelleserasmus.substack.com/p/why-your-memoir-draft-still-feels Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. An adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines. Follow Estelle: • Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus https://instagram.com/EstelleSErasmus • TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus https://www.tiktok.com/@estelleserasmus • Twitter: @EstelleSErasmus https://x.com/EstelleSErasmus • BlueSky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/estelleserasmus.bsky.social
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    36 mins
  • #180 Unlearning Childhood Lessons and Reinventing a Memoir with Anna Rollins

    #180 Unlearning Childhood Lessons and Reinventing a Memoir with Anna Rollins
    Feb 26 2026
    What does it take to unlearn the messages you were raised with and reshape them into a publishable memoir? In this episode of Freelance Writing Direct, Estelle Erasmus chats with Anna Rollins about the internal and structural shifts that reshaped her debut memoir, Famished. Anna reveals how expanding the scope of her manuscript, incorporating reporting, and strengthening her platform repositioned the project and led to multiple offers. They also explore how diet culture and evangelical purity culture shaped the 1990s media landscape, and what it means to critically reexamine the messages women absorbed about appetite, obedience, and ambition. Estelle reflects on her own experience crafting magazine cover lines that reinforced those narratives, and what it means to revisit that era from a different vantage point. In This Episode: • How purity culture shaped her early beliefs about body, faith, and obedience [2:34] • How questioning those inherited ideas reshaped both her identity and the structure of her memoir [4:19] • How writing during the pandemic helped her quiet marketplace anxiety [23:00] • How nearly 100 rejections pushed her to rethink and expand the manuscript [23:03] • The unconventional way she landed her agent [27:16] • The interview question she learned from Estelle that consistently yielded stronger quotes [26:39] • How publishing 50+ essays built her platform, even with only 500 Instagram followers [28:32] • How that reinvention ultimately led to multiple offers [28:48] • Why some of the strongest sections emerged when she stopped writing for the audience and started writing to discover and play [29:53] About Anna: Anna Rollins is the author of Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl. Her groundbreaking debut memoir examines the rhyming scripts of diet culture and evangelical purity culture, both of which direct women to fear their own bodies and appetites. Her writing has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Slate, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, Joyland, and more. She's an award-winning instructor who taught English in higher education for nearly 15 years and a 2025 West Virginia Creative Network Literary Arts Fellow. A lifelong Appalachian, she lives with her husband in West Virginia where they're raising their three small children. Follow her on Substack and Instagram @annajrollins. Connect with Anna: Website: https://www.annajrollins.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annajrollins/?hl=en Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/224466981-famished Estelle's Substack feature on Anna https://estelleserasmus.substack.com/p/writers-that-get-noticed-anna-rollins?utm_source=publication-search Get More From Estelle Upcoming Webinar with Writer's Digest: Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar. Learn more and register here. https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/amplifying-the-echo-effect-in-memoir-and-essays Private Small-Group Memoir Class — January and March are sold out. Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut https://estelleserasmus.substack.com Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. An adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines. Follow Estelle: • Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus https://instagram.com/EstelleSErasmus • TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus https://www.tiktok.com/@estelleserasmus • Twitter: @EstelleSErasmus https://twitter.com/EstelleSErasmus • BlueSky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/estelleserasmus.bsky.social
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    32 mins
  • #179 Writing from the Scar: Conscious Craft Choices with Jocelyn Jane Cox

    #179 Writing from the Scar: Conscious Craft Choices with Jocelyn Jane Cox
    Feb 19 2026
    What do you do when your son's first birthday party becomes the same day you lose your mother? In this episode, Estelle Erasmus sits down with Jocelyn Jane Cox, author of Motion Dazzle, the award-winning memoir that follows a single day when celebration and grief collided. It's a day that would forever contain both darkness and light, joy and devastating loss. Here's what makes this conversation essential for writers: Jocelyn shares the conscious craft choices behind weaving seemingly unrelated threads—competitive figure skating, caregiving, dating disasters, and new motherhood—into a cohesive narrative anchored by a powerful central metaphor. She waited seven years to write it. She revised it 14 times. She made the bold choice not to name her mother until the final pages. And when traditional publishing didn't align, she pivoted to small presses and received two offers. If you're wrestling with how to structure a memoir, wondering when you're ready to write about grief, or trying to figure out how to braid multiple timelines into one story, this episode offers a clear, honest look at how it can be done with intention. This conversation also echoes themes from my recent piece in Electric Literature, "9 Memoirs about Dating, Desire, and Reclamation,"where I highlight nine memoirists exploring dating, desire, reclamation, love, loss, and identity in bold, personal ways. https://electricliterature.com/9-memoirs-about-dating-desire-and-reclamation/ In this episode: Why writing to her son (not to publishers) freed her to finish the first draft [3:23] How cutting 13,000 words strengthened her manuscript [8:12] The craft decision to use a single-day structure (like in Mrs. Dalloway) [9:25] How she turned the metaphor of "motion dazzle"—a zebra's survival mechanism—into the beating heart of her memoir [14:33] What she learned working with Estelle on a pivotal essay [24:48] The truth about writing essays to tighten your book (and build your platform) [29:12] Why she queried exactly 25 agents before recognizing her book was meant for a small press [30:35]\ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ljvor7U4icc About Jocelyn: Jocelyn Jane Cox is the author of Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice (Vine Leaves Press, 2025), winner of the American Writing Awards in Best New Nonfiction. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing (fiction) from Sarah Lawrence College and has published in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Newsweek, Slate, Writers Digest, and numerous literary magazines. Her fiction and nonfiction have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She lives with her husband and son near Nyack, NY and works as a book coach, memoir teacher, and college essay coach. Connect with Jocelyn: Website: https://www.jocelynjanecox.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jocelynjanecoxwriter/?hl=en Motion Dazzle: A Memoir of Motherhood, Loss, and Skating on Thin Ice: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/238249565-motion-dazzle Get More From Estelle NEW: My next free Editor on Call event in collaboration with NYU is open for registration.I'm delighted to be in conversation with Susan Dabbar, Publisher and Editor in Chief of PROVOKEDmagazine, about what makes a pitch stand out and how to position your work for publication there. Sign up here: Upcoming Webinar with Writer's Digest: Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar. Learn more and register here. https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/amplifying-the-echo-effect-in-memoir-and-essays Learn with Estelle: • NYU Zoom Course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir & Essays — Discover how to beat writer's block, shape a powerful narrative, pitch editors, and walk away with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages. https://www.sps.nyu.edu/courses/WRIT1-CE9800-writing-about-your-life-through-memoir-essays-and-articles.html Private Small-Group Memoir Class — January and March are sold out. Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut https://estelleserasmus.substack.com Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author ...
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    34 mins
  • #178 From Viral Essay to Memoir Plus: Writing Longing into a Book Deal with Amanda McCracken

    #178 From Viral Essay to Memoir Plus: Writing Longing into a Book Deal with Amanda McCracken
    Feb 12 2026
    What does it take to turn a viral essay about longing into a deeply researched memoir and a book deal? For Amanda McCracken, it took 11 years, multiple agent rejections, a pandemic, creative platform-building, and an unwavering commitment to her story. In this episode, Estelle Erasmus sits down with Amanda McCracken, author of When Longing Becomes Your Lover: Breaking from Infatuation, Rejection, and Perfectionism to Find Authentic Love, a deeply researched memoir that blends personal narrative with journalism, psychology, and neuroscience. Amanda shares the behind-the-scenes reality of the publishing journey, from her 2013 viral New York Times essay to landing a book deal in 2024. She opens up about the structural challenges of writing memoir with research, the emotional work of cutting stories that "served their purpose," and how she built a compelling platform through her podcast The Longing Lab, her 2023 TED Talk, and strategic essay placements in Vogue, The Guardian, and The Washington Post. In This Episode How to turn a personal essay into a full book proposal and why timing matters [2:48] The real timeline of traditional publishing, from query to contract [4:35] Why perseverance, patience, and an athlete's mindset matter in the publishing journey [8:11] Why agents and editors wanted a "happy ending" and how Amanda navigated that [18:59] How to position your book in a competitive market without saying "there's nothing like it" [20:10] Smart platform-building strategies, including podcasts, TED Talks, and targeted essay placements [22:52] The power of giving yourself grace and focusing on what's fun during the book promotion process [25:02] How to structure a memoir that weaves personal story with deep research [25:19] Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4DTnoOVPzcM About Amanda: Amanda McCracken is a journalist passionate about experiences that highlight the intersection of wellness, travel, and relationships. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, Vogue, National Geographic, Elle, NPR, Outside, ESPN, SELF,Runner's World, and many others. She published her first article about longing in 2013, which led to additional articles featuring personal anecdotes and deep research and interviews with the BBC and Katie Couric. She is now considered a "limerence expert" and intimacy advocate. Her 2023 TED Talk, "How Longing Keeps Us From Healthy Relationships," highlights how longing can become self-sabotaging and shares how to change our patterns of longing. McCracken is the author of When Longing Becomes Your Lover: Breaking Free from Infatuation, Rejection, and Perfectionism to Find Authentic Love. She is also a part-time university instructor, massage therapist, triathlon coach, and competitive athlete. Raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, McCracken put down roots with her husband and daughter in Boulder, Colorado, after a trip around the world aboard the Peace Boat. Connect with Amanda www.amandajmccracken.com My book: When Longing Becomes Your Lover My podcast: The Longing Lab Watch my TEDx talk Read my NYT story on limerence Instagram: @amandajmccracken TikTok: @thelonginglab Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amanda.mccracken.39 Get More From Estelle Upcoming Webinar with Writer's Digest: Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar. Learn more and register here. https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/amplifying-the-echo-effect-in-memoir-and-essays Learn with Estelle: • NYU Zoom Course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir & Essays — Discover how to beat writer's block, shape a powerful narrative, pitch editors, and walk away with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages. https://www.sps.nyu.edu/courses/WRIT1-CE9800-writing-about-your-life-through-memoir-essays-and-articles.html Private Small-Group Memoir Class — January and March are sold out. Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut https://estelleserasmus.substack.com Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. An...
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    27 mins
  • #177 The Power of Narrative Tension with Peter Mountford

    #177 The Power of Narrative Tension with Peter Mountford
    Feb 5 2026
    Great writing doesn't come from inventing drama. It comes from putting characters in situations where something meaningful is at stake. In this episode of Freelance Writing Direct, Estelle talks with fiction writer and essayist Peter Mountford about his short story collection Detonator and the craft choices that make stories propulsive. Mountford discusses how place shapes his fiction, drawing from lived experience in Sri Lanka, Ecuador, Mexico, Scotland, and the U.S. He explains why many of the stories began as previously published pieces and how revising them later, with a teacher's eye, changed their emotional impact. This episode is for fiction and nonfiction writers who want their work to feel leaner, sharper, and more emotionally charged In this episode: How Detonator grew out of lived experience and real places [2:18] Guilt, death, sex, and humor as recurring narrative forces [15:24] The craft purpose of a nonfiction prologue in a fiction collection [15:55] How strong hooks give writers freedom to slow down later [19:19] Using secrets, requests, and moral pressure to create tension [21:06] Why "mini-scenes" often work better than full narratives [25:09] Revising previously published work with a teacher's eye [27:08] What makes Modern Love–style essays pitchable and effective [30:15] Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FvZLi7ehvdA About Peter: Peter Mountford is the author of the novels A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism (Washington State Book Award), The Dismal Science (NYT editor's choice), and his latest, a collection of short stories, Detonator (now out from Four Way Books). His work has appeared in the New York Times (Modern Love), Paris Review, Southern Review, The Atlantic, The Sun, Ploughshares, and Guernica. He teaches at University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe's MFA, and through Mountford Writing. Connect with Peter: Website: https://www.petermountford.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mountfordwriting/?hl=en Detonator: https://www.petermountford.com/detonator Coaching & Classes: https://www.mountfordwriting.com/ Modern Love Self Guided Class: https://www.mountfordwriting.com/how-to-write-a-new-york-times-modern-love-essay Get More from Estelle Upcoming Webinar with Writer's Digest: Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar. Learn more and register here. https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/amplifying-the-echo-effect-in-memoir-and-essays Learn with Estelle: • NYU Zoom Course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir & Essays — Discover how to beat writer's block, shape a powerful narrative, pitch editors, and walk away with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages. https://www.sps.nyu.edu/courses/WRIT1-CE9800-writing-about-your-life-through-memoir-essays-and-articles.html Private Small-Group Memoir Class — January and March are sold out. Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut https://estelleserasmus.substack.com Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. An adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines. Follow Estelle: • Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus • TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus • Twitter: @EstelleSErasmus • BlueSky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social
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    42 mins
  • #176 The Domino Effect of Plot: Writing Emotionally Complex Characters with Tova Mirvis

    #176 The Domino Effect of Plot: Writing Emotionally Complex Characters with Tova Mirvis
    Jan 29 2026
    Family loyalty can push ordinary people toward unimaginable choices. Estelle Erasmus chats with novelist and memoirist Tova Mirvis about her latest book, We Would Never, a gripping murder mystery inspired by a true crime case. While real events sparked the novel, the plot ultimately emerged from the emotional choices her characters make, with each decision setting off the next. Tova reveals that the real work happened on the inside, as she burrowed into the emotional lives of her characters: the anger, loyalty, fear, and love that drive people to extremes. In this episode: How a true crime case inspired We Would Never while leaving room for invention [3:02] Lessons from memoir writing applied to fiction [4:02] Crafting morally complex characters readers can still empathize with [6:38] Writing fiction as a mystery the reader wants to solve [7:05] The back-and-forth between character development and plot creation [8:59] Writing dialogue that escalates tension and reveals moral fault lines [16:24] Using empathy to explore difficult or morally ambiguous actions [19:45] The painstaking revision process and knowing when a novel is truly finished [20:49] Techniques for building suspense and pacing in emotionally charged narratives [29:22] Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/U0RPCcdmIVI About Tova: Tova Mirvis is the author, most recently, of the novel We Would Never which was published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Her memoir The Book of Separation was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and excerpted in the New York Times Modern Love Column. She is also the author of three prior novels, Visible City, The Outside World and The Ladies Auxiliary which was a national bestseller. Her essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine, Real Simple and Psychology Today, and her fiction has been broadcast on NPR. Connect with Tova: We Would Never: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/214151513-we-would-never Website: https://www.tovamirvis.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tovamirvis/ Get More from Estelle Upcoming Webinar with Writer's Digest: Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar. Learn more and register here. https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/amplifying-the-echo-effect-in-memoir-and-essays Learn with Estelle: • NYU Zoom Course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir & Essays — Discover how to beat writer's block, shape a powerful narrative, pitch editors, and walk away with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages. https://www.sps.nyu.edu/courses/WRIT1-CE9800-writing-about-your-life-through-memoir-essays-and-articles.html Private Small-Group Memoir Class — January and March are sold out. Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut https://estelleserasmus.substack.com Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. An adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines. Follow Estelle: • Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus • TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus • Twitter: @EstelleSErasmus • BlueSky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social
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    32 mins
  • #175 From Mews(es) to Manuscript: How Inspired by Cats Became an Illustrated Literary Book

    #175 From Mews(es) to Manuscript: How Inspired by Cats Became an Illustrated Literary Book
    Jan 22 2026
    Did you know that cats have, in their feline way, shaped some of the greatest writing careers in literary history? Bob Eckstein and Nava Atlas join Estelle Erasmus to talk about their collaboration on Inspired by Cats: Writers and Their Mews(es), a visually rich book exploring the creative bond between writers and their feline companions. The conversation traces how the idea evolved from a shareable literary roundup into a full-scale book published by Norton. Bob and Nava unpack their creative process, from cleanly dividing roles between writing and illustration to navigating permissions, estates, and revisions. This episode is especially valuable for writers curious about collaboration, research-driven books, illustration partnerships, and finding inspiration beyond the page. In this episode: How Inspired by Cats: Writers and Their Mews(es) grew from a literary roundup into a full book [1:10] Why cats consistently emerge as ideal creative companions for writers [3:01] What Bob and Nava learned about collaboration, trust, and dividing creative roles [9:40] What working with estates, living authors, and editors really involves [12:30] Surprising discoveries about famous writers and their feline companions [20:15] The importance of curation and surprise when shaping a narrative-driven book [24:19] How tight word limits can sharpen writing instead of limiting it [30:46] What the project revealed about inspiration, discipline, and the writing life [32:20] Bob Eckstein previously appeared on Freelance Writing Direct to talk about his work and career, and listeners may enjoy revisiting that episode alongside this conversation. #86 The Way of an Author and Illustrator: Finding Inspiration in Art. https://estelleserasmus.com/86-the-way-of-an-author-and-illustrator-finding-inspiration-in-art-featuring-bob-eckstein/ Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/PDRCFOiCLn4 Inspired by Cats Writers and Their Mews(es): https://wwnorton.com/books/9781682689493 Bob Eckstein is a NY Times bestseller, award-winning illustrator, New Yorker cartoonist, and world's leading snowman expert. His newest books are Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums and Inspired by Cat: Writers & Their Mews(es). Connect with Bob Website Bob's Latest Book on Estelle's Bookshop Instagram Twitter TikTok Facebook Substack Podcast: The Cartoon Pad Nava Atlas has some twenty books to her credit. She's known for her many vegetarian and vegan cookbooks, most recently the 5th edition of Vegan Soups and Stews for All Seasons. Nava is also the author of visual nonfiction, notably Literary Ladies Guide to the Writing Life, which spun off to the web archive LiteraryLadiesGuide.com, dedicated to women's classic literature, with millions of views logged. Her latest book is Inspired by Cats: Writers and Their Mews(es), illustrated by Bob Eckstein. She's working on Women Writing Dangerously, a visual history of banning, censorship, and silencing of women's literature. She lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York state. You can find her at LiteraryLadiesGuide.com and TheVeganAtlas.com. Connect with Nava https://literaryladiesguide.substack.com https://theveganatlas.substack.com Get More from Estelle Upcoming Webinar with Writer's Digest: Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar. Learn more and register here. https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/amplifying-the-echo-effect-in-memoir-and-essays 🎓 Learn with Estelle: • NYU Zoom Course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir & Essays — Discover how to beat writer's block, shape a powerful narrative, pitch editors, and walk away with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages. https://www.sps.nyu.edu/courses/WRIT1-CE9800-writing-about-your-life-through-memoir-essays-and-articles.html Private Small-Group Memoir Class — January and March are sold out. Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. 📰 Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut https://estelleserasmus.substack.com • Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. 🎤 Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ 📘 Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 🎧 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. ...
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    37 mins
  • #174 Forgiveness Without Apologies. Writing a Mother-Daughter Memoir

    #174 Forgiveness Without Apologies. Writing a Mother-Daughter Memoir
    Jan 15 2026
    Forgiveness doesn't erase the past. It changes who gets to control your present. In this episode of Freelance Writing Direct, Estelle Erasmus talks with filmmaker, writer, and coach Gayle Kirschenbaum and her 102-year-old mother, Mildred Kirschenbaum, about their volatile, funny, and hard-won evolution from conflict to connection. Gayle shares the story behind her debut memoir, Bullied to Besties: A Daughter's Journey to Forgiveness, including the relentless criticism she grew up with, the physical toll it took, and the moment she realized the only way forward was to stop living as a victim. The conversation also explores generational silence around feelings, antisemitism and identity, and the surprising way Mildred became Gayle's most rigorous story consultant, even when she appears as the "villain" in the narrative. It's a candid look at what forgiveness can mean when the other person doesn't change, but you do. In this episode: How childhood dynamics quietly shape identity, health, and self-trust [5:17] Why Gayle decided forgiveness was the only way forward [7:55] Generational silence, emotional truth, and the limits of understanding [10:05] Structuring a memoir through therapy, flashbacks, and confrontation [15:54] Mildred's perspective on her parenting and how intention & impact don't always align [17:54] Using journals, letters, and family archives as memoir source material [24:47] Seeing a parent as a wounded child and how that reframed everything [29:29] What it looks like to reclaim agency while staying in relationship [30:00] Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xQcs4nOjODM Connect with Gayle and Mildred: Website: https://www.gaylekirschenbaum.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glkirschenbaum/?hl=en Bullied to Besties: A Daughter's Journey To Forgiveness: https://www.gaylekirschenbaum.com/bullied-to-besties Look At Us Now, Mother!: https://www.gaylekirschenbaum.com/look-at-us-now-mother Get More from Estelle Upcoming Webinar with Writer's Digest: Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays, February 26th, 1:00-2:30 pm ET If you want to understand how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your work, join me for this brand new interactive craft webinar. Learn more and register here. https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/amplifying-the-echo-effect-in-memoir-and-essays 🎓 Learn with Estelle: • NYU Zoom Course: Writing About Your Life Through Memoir & Essays — Discover how to beat writer's block, shape a powerful narrative, pitch editors, and walk away with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages. https://www.sps.nyu.edu/courses/WRIT1-CE9800-writing-about-your-life-through-memoir-essays-and-articles.html Private Small-Group Memoir Class — January and March are sold out. Next 6-week session begins May 2026. Email me at freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com for details and to get on the waiting list. 📰 Read & Subscribe • Substack:— NEW POST: On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut https://estelleserasmus.substack.com • Newsletter: Sign up at estelleserasmus.com for show updates + a free Pitching Guide. 🎤 Watch: Estelle's TEDx Talk — How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpcWmjpzSIQ 📘 Book: Writing That Gets Noticed — named a Poets & Writers "Best Book for Writers." https://www.amazon.com/Writing-That-Gets-Noticed-Storyteller/dp/1608688364 🎧 Listen: Freelance Writing Direct Podcast — 2025 Podcast of the Year (American Writing Awards) https://estelleserasmus.com/podcast/ About Estelle Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist,TEDx Speaker, author of Writing That Gets Noticed, and host of Freelance Writing Direct. An adjunct professor at NYU, her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines. Follow Estelle: • Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus • TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus • Twitter: @EstelleSErasmus • BlueSky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social
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    43 mins