Michelle Burford is having a moment. As the co-author of six New York Times best-sellers, including the #1 best-selling Just as I Am, written with the legendary actress Cicely Tyson and published just days before Ms. Tyson's death in January at the age of 96, she has established herself as one of the leading collaborators in publishing. She actually prefers the term "story architect" to describe her work, over familiar handles like "ghostwriter" or "collaborator", but her work transcends labels or categorization. Michelle's books shine intimate light on the life and work of her celebrity subjects, as she pushes them to reflect on the choices they've made, the legacies they've built, and the challenges still to come. She asks hard questions and digs for buried truths.

In addition to her work with Ms. Tyson, Michelle has also collaborated on the New York Times best-sellers Courage to Soar, with the game-changing Olympic gymnast Simon Biles; More Myself, with the Grammy Award-winning artist Alicia Keys; and, Finding Me, Michelle Knight's harrowing account of her decade-long ordeal following her abduction by Ariel Castro, who later kidnapped and held two other women with her at his Cleveland home.

"I still find it a really big thrill to peek over into the life of someone like Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, or Michelle Knight and have a part in putting that on the page for readers," Burford tells host Daniel Paisner. "A lot of what I do, and what we do as a group of collaborators, is shut up and allow our clients to tell the version of the story they most want us to know."

Join us on As Told To: The Ghostwriting Podcast, as the abundantly talented Michelle Burford tells us the version of her story she most wants us to know.

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Today's episode is sponsored by Libro.fm.