Eileen Vorbach Collins joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about losing her young daughter to suicide and the essays she wrote as she contended with her loss, the role of reflection, change, and growth in memoir, calling yourself a writer, finding your people, choosing what stays in essay collections and what goes, and her memoir Love in the Archives.

Also in this episode:

-bad writing groups

-titling our work

-finding homes for our essays in literary magazines

Books mentioned in this episode:

Broken in the Best Possible Way by Jenny Lawson

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Eileen Vorbach Collins writes true stories she wishes were fiction and fairy tales she wishes were true. Her essays have been widely published and received several prestigious awards. Two have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Eileen's essay collection, Love in the Archives: A Patchwork of True Stories About Suicide Loss, is forthcoming with Apprentice House Press in October. 

Connect with Eileen:

Website: https://www.eileenvorbachcollins.com/

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

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/evorbachcollins

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Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, 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 lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and is working on her next book.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

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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