Ellen Blum Barish joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about becoming a memoirist after a career as a journalist and how that deepened her love of writing, the power of working on smaller pieces as we craft our memoir, and finding the themes and structure in our story.

Also in this episode:

-Ellen’s Eight Essential Elements of Essay

-Writing about the people we love

-Knowing where to begin and where to end

Memoirs mentioned in this episode:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Inheritence by Dani Shapiro

What Comes Next and How to Like It by Abigail Thomas 

Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas

One Hundred Names for Love Diane Ackerman

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Greely

Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett

Ellen Blum Barish is the author of Seven Springs: A Memoir (Shanti Arts, 2021) and Views from the Home Office Window (Adams Street Publishing, 2007). You can find her work in Brevity’s Blog, Full Grown People, Literary Mama, Tablet and The Chicago Tribune. Many of her essays have aired on Chicago Public Radio and have been told on storytelling stages around Chicago. Ellen founded the literary publication Thread, which earned four notables in Best American Essays and has taught writing at Northwestern University where she earned a master’s in journalism. She works privately with writers and teaches writing workshops on essay collections and memoir.

Seven Springs: A Memoir: http://www.shantiarts.co/uploads/files/abc/BARISH_SEVEN.html

Seven Springs: A Memoir (audiobook on Amazon): https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Seven-Springs-A-Memoir/dp/B09BDBM1FD/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Website: https://ellenblumbarish.com

Coaching: https://ellenblumbarish.com/coaching/

Blog on Craft, Creativity & Commotion: https://ellenblumbarish.com/blog/

E-Guides “Writing Your Marker Story” & “Ellen’s Eight Essential Elements of Essay” https://ellenblumbarish.com/guides/

Upcoming Workshops: https://ellenblumbarish.com/workshops/

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

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EllenBlumBarish

Twitter:

LinkedIn:

Ronit’s essays and fiction have been featured in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, 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 both the 2021 Best Book Awards and the 2021 Book of the Year Award and a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and will be published in 2022. She is host and producer of the podcasts And Then Everything Changed and The Body Myth.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/

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Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography

Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers