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Finding Your Form: Kelly McMasters on Writing Memoir in Essays and Emotional Truth
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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/
Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi
Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn
Produced by Espresso Podcast Production
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By Lisa Cooper Ellison
5
7070 ratings
Send us a text
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/
Sign up for Revise Your Memoir series: https://bit.ly/4ooLTDi
Connect with your host, Lisa:
Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/
Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn
Produced by Espresso Podcast Production
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