Shigeko Ito joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about the lasting impact of childhood emotional neglect, how invisible trauma can manifest in adult life, fragmented memories, facing a fierce inner critic, accepting limits, growing as a person and as a writer, when the back story feels as important and relevant as the front story, the often chaotic experience of managing lots of material, becoming more compassionate, the healing power of storytelling, the generational trauma we inherit, using our experience to help others, and her new memoir The Pond Beyond the Forest: Reflections on Childhood Trauma and Motherhood.

Also in this episode:

-not giving up

-our authentic selves

-viewing our work from a larger picture

Books mentioned in this episode:

-Writing Without a Parachute:The Art of Freefall by Barbara Turner-Vesselago 

-Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

-The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

-Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg

-Your Life as Story by Tristine Rainer

-Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling by Michelle Barker

Shigeko Ito is an author, educator, and mental health advocate in Seattle who  grew up in Japan and immigrated to the United States in her early twenties to pursue higher education. She holds an MEd in early childhood education with an integrated Montessori teaching credential from the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, California, and a PhD in Education from Stanford University. 

Her articles have appeared on the CPTSD Foundation's blog and on the ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America) website. She has spent many years teaching at a Montessori preschool in Seattle, where she lives with her husband of thirty years.  Her new memoir is The Pond Beyond the Forest: Reflections on Childhood Trauma and Motherhood.

Connect with Shigeko:

Website: shigekoito.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/shigekoitomemoir

Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/shigekochakoito

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shigekoito-memoir

Twitter/X: x.com/ShigekoChakoIto

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shigekoito.bsky.social

The Pond Beyond the Forest: Reflections on Childhood Trauma and Motherhood is available at major retailers such as Amazon, Barnes &; Noble, and Apple Books. However, the official purchase link is: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Pond-Beyond-the-Forest/Shigeko-Ito/9781647429805

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Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, 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 teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

Subscribe to Ronit’s Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank

Follow Ronit:

https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social

Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography

Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers