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In today’s episode, join me and Jennifer Selig as we explore how memoir writing can be a powerful tool for healing and self-discovery. Learn how Jennifer’s unique blend of depth psychology and storytelling offers a fresh perspective on the writing process, and find out how her alchemical stages of change and equations for transformation can help you navigate the emotional terrain of your memoir.

Episode Highlights

• 4:30: Depth Psychology and the Writing Cure
• 12:15: Understanding Archetypes
• 17:28: The Three Stages of Transformation
• 25:30 The Four Equations of Transformation
• 29:00 The Issue of Catharsis
• 34:00 The Power of Attention

Resources for this Episode:

• “'Nobody Sees a Flower, Really, It Is So Small': Extolling the Ethic of Attention” by Jennifer Leigh Selig
• “A Question of Catharsis” by Debra Gwartney

Jennifer’s Bio: Jennifer Leigh Selig is an LBGTQ+ teacher, international speaker, book publisher, and author whose writing and teaching career spans four decades. She’s the author of dozens of newspaper articles, book reviews, essays, journal articles, short stories, screenplays, and books, including the Nautilus Gold award-winning book Deep Creativity: Seven Ways to Spark Your Creative Spirit, and her latest book, Deep Memoir: An Archetypal Approach to Deepen Your Story and Broaden Its Appeal.

Connect with Jennifer:

Website: www.jenniferleighselig.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.selig.1

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jenniferselig/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferleighselig/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
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Sign up for The Art of Reflection in Memoir: https://bit.ly/3S58c2g

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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What happens when a story won’t stay linear—when your life fractures in ways that defy neat beginnings, middles, and ends?

In this episode of Writing Your Resilience, I sit down with essayist, professor, and former bookshop owner Kelly McMasters, author of The Leaving Season: A Memoir-in-Essays. From leaving marriages to landscapes, identities to illusions, Kelly’s memoir is a brilliant meditation on grief, desire, and the elastic form of the essay itself.

We talk about what it means to write honestly into complexity—how a false childhood memory cracked open the heart of a story, why the essay form became her truest vehicle, and the questions that shape her work long after the final line is written.

Episode Highlights

• 2:40: Essays versus Straight Forward Narratives
• 9:39: The Power of Three Scenes
• 16:45: Weaving Themes Into Your Essay Collection
• 22:09: Navigating Flashbacks
• 27:13: Getting to the Truth
• 36:00 Caring for Your Shame

Resources Mentioned During this Episode:

• What Squirrels Taught Me About Life After Divorce
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• Michael Foucault’s Theory of Heterotopia
• The Truth About Unringing Phones by Lara Lillibridge
• Turn Your Short Pieces Into a Finished Nonfiction Book by Lara Lillibridge
• The Biggest Memoir Mistake: When Too Much Backstory Derails Your Narrative

Kelly’s Bio: Kelly McMasters is an essayist, professor, mother, and former bookshop owner. She is the author of the The Leaving Season: A Memoir-in-Essays (WW Norton) and co-editor of the ABA national bestseller Wanting: Women Writing About Desire (Catapult). Her books have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, award-winning podcasts including The Sh*t No One Tells You About Writing, and CSPAN’s Book TV in an episode on Myths of the American Dream

Her essays, reviews, and articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Literary Hub, The New York Times, Oprah Daily, The Rumpus, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. She currently runs The Magpie Substack and teaches at Hofstra University in New York.

Connect with Kelly:

• Website: https://www.kellymcmasters.com/
• Instagram: @kelly_mc_masters
• Substack: https://kellymcmasters.substack.com/

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Sign up for The Art of Reflection in Memoir: https://bit.ly/3S58c2g

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production

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What makes you weird? Is it something that fills you with pride or something you try to hide, a secret you’re constantly working to cover up? In today’s episode, I’m beyond excited to sit down with the brilliant author, Allison Landa, whose memoir Bearded Lady takes us on a raw and transformative journey of self-acceptance, societal judgment, and the complex relationship we have with both our inner and outer weirdness. Whether you’re a writer or simply someone who wants to connect with a compelling story of resilience and identity, this conversation will inspire and resonate with you.

Episode Highlights

• 1:00: The Challenges of Being Weird
• 3:17: How Weirdness Both Unites and Separates Us
• 5:11: Owning Your Story
• 9:36: Overworking Your Story Dough
• 11:45: The Shame of Being Seen and Not Seen
• 17:50: Building Rounded Characters
• 23:22: Navigating Time in Memoir
• 29:48: How Writing Changes Your Point of View
• 32:50: Dealing with Reader Responses
• 38:58: Building Your Resilience

Resources for this Episode:

• Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by Deckle Edge
• The Fact of a Body by Alex Marzano Lesnevich
• “The Biggest Memoir Mistake: When Too Much Backstory Derails Your Narrative” by Lisa Cooper Ellison
• “3 Ways to Experiment with Memoir Structure to Improve Your Narrative Arc” by Lisa Cooper Ellison

Allison’s Bio: Allison Landa is the author of Bearded Lady, an exploration of what makes you feel weird in the world. Her work has been featured in Business Insider, Parents Magazine, HuffPost, The Guardian US, and The Washington Post, among other venues. She has been awarded artist residencies at MacDowell, WordSpace, Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow.

Connect

• Facebook: @matzohbrei
• Instagram: @adlanda
• Threads: @ adlanda
• Website: www.allisonlanda.com
• Personal Blog: www.allisonlanda.blogspot.com

Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Write More, Fret Less
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Sign up for The Art of Reflection in Memoir: https://bit.ly/3S58c2g

Produced by Espresso Podcast Production