This week’s show explores writing the hard thing—and how releasing the hard thing into the world frees us from the burden of carrying secrets and being anything less than our whole selves in the world. Guest Jessy Easton is a beautiful writer with a strong Substack following for her work in somatic writing and her serialization of her memoir, The One Who Leaves. We’re excited to share with listeners Jessy’s beautiful insights about how her writing saved her, and some of what she’s learned—and what she teaches—through writing the hard thing. We also invite you to check out Grant’s guest post, “A Killing of Oneself. A Tendency.” on Jessy’s Substack, and to celebrate this week’s Memoir Milestone, Living with Strangers, by Robin Rosenbluth.

Jessy Easton is a writer, memoirist, and somatic writing facilitator. She is the author of the serialized memoir The One Who Leaves, a Substack bestseller. Her Substack, AFTER/WORDS, is a space where readers engage with difficult stories through essays, live sessions, and somatic writing prompts focused on memory, lived experience, and the body. Her work has been published in The Rumpus, Good River Review, Beacon Quarterly, Rappahannock Review, and elsewhere, and her essay “The Things We Leave Out” was nominated for the Pushcart Prize Born in the Mojave Desert of California, Jessy now lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains with her partner, their son, and their two black dogs. She is currently working on her next book.

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There’s so much self-understanding to be gleaned from how we move in the world. This week Brooke and Grant explore adventure and migration and living abroad, springing from the stories of guest Terria Smith, whose memoir, Love You So Many, explores all of these themes and more. What sometimes looks like a jagged arc of a life can in fact be destiny—and Terria’s journey-memoir drives that point home. In her book, she’s reclaiming her people’s migratory roots, striking out into the world on her own terms, and coming to terms with the choices she’s made in ways that are heartfelt and honest and true. For all these reasons, her book and this episode are a blueprint for memoir—and we hope you enjoy. And on Memoir Milestones this week, we’re celebrating Lisa Ramelow and her memoir, Misadventures in My High Heels: Walking Through Life's Ups, Downs, and Silver Linings.

Terria Smith is a tribal member of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians and is a proud original Californian. She is the editor of News from Native California magazine and director of the Berkeley Roadhouse, Heyday’s California Indian publishing program. She’s also the editor of the 2023 anthology Know We Are Here: Voices of Native California Resistance. She received her undergraduate degree at Cal Poly Humboldt and her masters degree at UC Berkeley’s graduate school of journalism. 

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We’re taking the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11 to explore monoculture moments in memoir. These are collective events that we’ve all gone through together, where you know exactly where you were when an event happened. Captain Nia Gilliam had one of the most rarified views of 9/11 imaginable, from the cockpit of the last plane cleared for takeoff at Newark Airport on 9/11. Her story is about that day, what she saw and how it threatened to ground her forever, after a lifelong dream—and fight against the odds—to become a commercial airline pilot. In honor of those we lost and of that day, we’re honored to be speaking with Captain Gilliam and hearing from her about getting this book done, the particular trauma of that day, and her advocacy on behalf of Black female pilots. Quite a story and quite a life! We’re hosting a live event at Vintage Wine on September 18, 5-7pm. Get your tickets here. And check out Embassy Kid, by J. K. Amerson López, who we’re celebrating this week on Memoir Milestones.

Captain Nia Gilliam is one of the few Black female airline pilots in the United States, flying as an Airbus Captain for a major US airline with type ratings across multiple Boeing and Airbus fleets. She witnessed the September 11 attacks from the flight deck at Newark Airport—an experience at the heart of her debut memoir, Cleared for Takeoff. In 2016, she co-founded Sisters of the Skies, a nonprofit working to increase the number of Black female pilots, which received the Henderson Trophy in 2023 and coverage from Good Morning America and Bloomberg. Her honors include the Egretha Award and the United Airlines BEACON Excellence Award, and she was featured on PBS American Masters: The Women's List alongside Shonda Rhimes and Madeleine Albright. 

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We are back from our summer break with the first guest of our ninth season, Reyna Grande, in conversation about her new book, Migrant Heart. In this book, Reyna examines the ways in which she’s gravitated toward the memories that most hurt. There’s a real tension between excavating sadness and joy in our work, and discovering how both might show up on the page. Reyna’s honest look at questions of fixation, wrapping identity around trauma, and poking at the wound is an invitation to any writer—or person—to invite in more happiness and gratitude. This is not an interview that leans into unrealistic notions of happiness, but rather a deep exploration about the benefits of breaking ourselves free from our constant preoccupations. Also, there are a couple things we want to share with readers. One, come visit us in Berkeley at Vintage Wine on September 18, 5-7pm. Get your tickets here. And check out Go On and Have a Whore Phase, by Yasmin Olo, the first author we’re celebrating for our new feature, Memoir Milestones.

Reyna Grande is an award-winning author whose work powerfully illuminates the complexities of immigration, family separation, and the pursuit of the American Dream. Born in Mexico, Reyna embarked on a perilous journey to the U.S. at age nine to reunite with her parents—a defining experience that fuels her writing. Breaking generational barriers, she became the first in her family to graduate from college, earning a BA from UC Santa Cruz and an MFA from Antioch University. Her diverse body of work includes her celebrated memoirs, The Distance Between Us and A Dream Called Home, and her newest book is the memoir-in-essays, Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can’t Forget.

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This is the last of our summer Best-Of episodes, this one featuring clips from our interviews with Andre Dubus III and Marya Hornbacher. Yes, these two authors are legacy memoirists, both of whom have written New York Times bestsellers. But also, both know something of the cost of telling the truth. Andre speaks to the cost to his relationships, while Marya speaks to the cost to her reputation. Both know what it is to be scrutinized, but also to stand proud in their raw and honest truths. These are two passionate interviews that we both loved and learned from this year.

Andre Dubus III has authored nine books including the New York Times’ bestsellers House of Sand and Fog, The Garden of Last Days, and his memoir, Townie. Dubus has been a finalist for the National Book Award, and has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Marya Hornbacher is an award-winning journalist, New York Times bestselling author, and the recipient of a host of awards for her work, which include Wasted, Madness, Sane, and Waiting, and the novel: The Center of Winter. Marya has spent a prolific quarter century writing and teaching and writes a popular Substack called Going Solo at the End of the World.

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These two former guests are partnered for their clear-eyed take on the world and their unwillingness to back down. Roxane Gay and Myriam Gurba are as loved as they are rebuked for their honesty and their critical takes‚ and for writing things that others might not dare. This week we’re celebrating bravery on the page, and heroines like Roxane and Myriam who say the things that need to be said. And we explore the kind of writing they do and why there’s not really room for niceness when you’re calling out, drawing attention to, or pushing back. An inspiring episode for writers looking to harness and use their voices to speak truth to power and effect change.

Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, and more. She is the author of the books Ayiti, An Untamed State, The New York Times-bestselling Bad Feminist, the nationally bestselling Difficult Women, and The New York Times-bestselling Hunger. She also writes the Substack newsletter, The Audacity.

Myriam Gurba is the author of four books: Dahlia Season, Painting Their Portraits in Winter; Mean, and Creep. Myriam’s writing has been widely anthologized and has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Believer, Paris Review, and elsewhere.

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During the month of August, Memoir Nation revisits its favorite guests of the past year. This week we’re pairing up powerhouse authors Jose Antonio Vargas and Beth Macy, whose memoirs touch on social-cultural issues that force conversation—and effect change. These two episodes circle questions of immigration and who gets to claim belonging in this country (Vargas) and poverty and who can get ahead and how in this country (Macy)—and why memoir is a powerful vehicle for spreading messages that desperately need our attention. If you love these authors, be sure to check out their full episodes, and we’ll see you next week for another Best of Memoir Nation. Happy Summer!

Jose Antonio Vargas is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, and Tony-nominated theatrical producer. He’s the founder of the nonprofit immigrant storytelling organization Define American, and his best-selling memoir, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, was published in 2018, with an updated edition in 2025. His next book, White Is Not a Country, will examine America's foundational Black and White racial binary, and where everyone else fits within and outside that binary.

Beth Macy reported and wrote for The Roanoke Times for a quarter-century and is the author of Dopesick, Raising Lazarus, Factory Man, and Paper Girl, her first memoir. 

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Happy August, Memoir Nation! As is our custom, we bring you our favorite guests of the past year, partnered by theme. This week we chose Kwame Alexander and E. Jean Carroll, both of whom have seen major personal victories in the months since we originally interviewed them. Kwame Alexander launched his own imprint, Kwame Alexander Books, and E. Jean Carroll finally got her settlement money from Trump. These two guests are exemplary of how to face the hard stuff and keep going—all the way to the top. As we say in the show opening, it’s as if they’re interviews are in conversation with one another—and neither one fails to inspire. We’re wishing you good summer writing and good summer reading, and we hope you enjoy our Year 8 “best-of” series.

Kwame Alexander is an Emmy® Award-winning producer of The Crossover, his Newbery Medal-winning novel turned Disney+ TV series, the creator of the new animated PBS special Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Band, and the new head of Kwame Alexander Books, an imprint of Sourcebooks. His mission is to change the world—one word at a time.

E. Jean Carroll is a journalist and longtime advice columnist best known for her column “Ask E. Jean” in Elle, which ran for over 25 years. She is the author of Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President, about the two sexual abuse cases she won against Trump, twice, and for which she has subsequently received a $5.6 millon payout. Her high-profile legal victories against Donald Trump have elevated her as a symbol of resilience and truth-telling.

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These week comedian Roz Hernandez opens up her heart and her story to us—and shares about the acceptance that comes when you stop trying to be “for everyone.” As a transgender comic, Roz talks about the experience of being hated just for existing, and why she decided to take her comedy show on tour to LGBTQ+ bars around the country—and experience that would later become the foundation for her memoir, Peeing in an Empty Bottle. This is our final episode of our eighth year of podcasting, and we love that it ends on a story of transformation, acceptance, and how we all have the choice to settle into the best version our ourselves we can be—even when that means we’ll have our detractors and critics. Freedom and success often go hand-in-hand, and Roz embodies a version of what that looks like in this week’s show.  

Roz Hernandez is a transgender comedian based in Los Angeles. In 2023 she starred in an 8 episode tv series on Hulu called “Living for the Dead” with Kristen Stewart. In 2024 New York Magazine’s Vulture named her one of the “Comedians You Should and Will Know”; she was the opening act for Bob the Drag Queen’s US tour; Apple Podcasts named her comedy podcast “Ghosted! by Roz Hernandez” their Pick of The Month; and she was featured in the Netflix documentary about LGBTQ standup called “OUTstanding: A Comedy Revolution.”

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Memoir Nation explores the hardest things this week with guest Emily Rapp Black. Her new book is I Would Die If I Were You, part memoir, part how-to, that supports writers through writing trauma and the things that won’t let us go, and how to stay the course. In this week’s show, we talk a lot about process—doing the work, the permission to write what is calling to be written, and how to shake things up when you’re struggling. We talk about being in the mess, not worrying about your book being right for everyone, and how to grapple with the things other people say—like I would die if I were you. There is so much wisdom and grace in this interview, and in Rapp Black’s new book. In this week’s trend, we cover Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir, Careless People, in an effort to continue the upward sales trajectory of this book that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are desperate to silence.

Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir, The Still Point of the Turning World, which was a New York Times bestseller, Editor’s Pick, and a finalist for the PEN-USA Award; Sanctuary, a New York Times Editor’s Pick; Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg; and most recently, I Would Die If I Were You: Notes on Art and Truthtelling. A former Fulbright scholar, she was educated at Harvard, Trinity College-Dublin, Saint Olaf College, and the University of Texas-Austin. Her work has appeared in VOGUE, the New York Times, The Sun, TIME, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times and other publications. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside. 

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