Writer's Voices

In *The Many Lives of Anne Frank*, book critic and former editor at *The New Republic*, Ruth Frank takes readers into Anne Frank's life from her childhood to her time in the concentration camps, and also explores the story behind the creation of her famous diary. What many may not realize is that there were actually three versions of the diary: the original version, which was her rough draft, the second version which included her edits, and the final version, which is the world-renowned published biography that has been read by millions around the world. Interestingly, the published version of her diary includes information that Anne had previously removed as she was revising the manuscript, but her father replaced after Anne's death. As for what was initially excluded, Franklin notes, "For one thing, she took out some direct references to the family's Jewish practice while they were in hiding... but the major thing that she took out is her romance with Peter van Pels, the son of the van Pels', the family with whom the Franks were in hiding for all that time, and of course Anne did not explain why she made these choices... and in general, I don't like to speculate as a biographer about things for which we have no factual evidence..."

Reflecting on what might have happened to the diary if Anne had survived, Franklin speculates that she would've published a work that was entirely different than what she started with. "...the diary would've almost certainly not have been published in the form that we know it now... and what I picture, in fact, is that if she had survived, she might've written a really indelible memoir of the concentration camps that would enable us in some ways to see them differently because just about every famous book that has come out of the Holocaust is by a man... and one thing I go into in the book is how the experience for women especially in Auschwitz was a little bit different from the experience of men... and I think if Anne had lived, she might've written a book that would've resulted in us seeing the camp a little bit different."

In *A Different Kind of Vow: Rewriting My Happily Ever After*, counselor, journalist, and debut memoirist Laurie Collister shares her first memoir about her colorful life in Los Angeles in the 1980's. Although Collister moved to California at age 21, her memoir focuses solely on her experiences in her thirties and forties. Based on her own diaries that survived a condo fire, Collister chronicles the many unusual events that occurred on a regular basis as she was figuring out her life and searching for the right partner. She recalled, "Every single month something odd happened to me, which I recorded in my diary, and whether it'd be working at a convent or talking to an obscene phone caller every night... everything was odd, so that's why it lends itself to a book... [it was] also a spiritual quest too. So the arc of change really was finding the vow, failing to find the vow, and then discovering that maybe there's a different vow to follow, so that was the arc of change in this memoir. There was a lot of angst around that, time was running out, I needed to find the guy and all these odd men showed up, and so that's where the character development occurs."

Unlike many memoirs, which are written from memory, *A Different Kind of Vow* draws directly from Collister's diary entries. "Every material is from... my diaries. There's nothing that's made up or based on my memories. It's all carefully pulled from diary entries. There's nothing that's sort of, oh I think that's what happened." And because diary writing is so important to her, she now writes her thoughts in a specific type of journal called a Leuchtturm, which is produced in a 100 year-old company outside of Germany. Out of her 300 diaries, would she ever let anyone read what she's written? "Never... no one could read it anyway because my writing's so illegible. That's the lock and key of my diary. It's completely illegible... I have to say that some words are incomprehensible, but, fortunately, enough are comprehensible that I can make out what I said."

In *Enormous Wings*, *New York Times* bestselling author Laurie Frankel introduces readers to Pepper Mills, a 77 year-old grandmother who reluctantly moves into a retirement community at the request of her adult children. While there, she makes new friends and falls in love, but then becomes ill. She worries she may have a serious medical condition, but soon discovers she's not sick at all - she's pregnant! Regarding the inspiration for this unusual story, Frankel explained that the idea came to her years ago following a health issue involving her grandmother. "...when my grandma first got sick two and a half decades ago with what we later learned was lung cancer, at the beginning... she was kind of nauseous and kind of confused, and kind of muddled and fuzzy-headed, and she and I were joking at the time that maybe she was pregnant... clearly that seed lay dormant for a really long time and many decades later I wrote this book."

Known for writing about controversial topics such as abortion and transgender identity, Frankel noted that a novel's length allows important issues like these to be fully addressed. "I feel like I don't set out to write about these controversial subjects, but somehow they come up and it is true that at that point I do not shy away from them... This is what novels suit up for is this ability to have conversation when conversation is difficult... a novel is ten hours of time, it's three hundred pages, it's character-driven, it's funny, it's real people in real relationships and so it allows you to get in and muck about in these issues and talk about what there is to talk about... and in some ways it's the contract that you have with the reader... it's engaging with, it's having a conversation with and gosh, I just sort of think that's what the world needs now is conversation."

In *Dispatches from Grief: A Mother's Journey Through the Unthinkable*, journalist and author Danielle Crittenden presents her poignant memoir about the devastating loss of her daughter, Miranda, and her journey through grief that followed after. Rather than encouraging readers to move on after loss, she writes about sitting with the grief and living with the immense pain that it brings. As difficult as it was to write about Miranda's death, Crittenden explained why she felt compelled to share her experiences in this memoir. "It was one thing to write the book, but then it's another thing to talk about and promote the book... In fact, I find, actually, the more I talk about it the closer I feel to my daughter, so in a way that helps me... I needed to write about what I was feeling - not as a journal, not as something personal, but as a reporter. I felt... when this kind of tragedy strikes, that you are just flung into what I call now the alternative universe, and I felt... I needed to communicate what I was going through... both [my husband] and I have lost parents, but it is a completely different type of grief when you lose your own child."

As Crittenden was navigating her grief journey, she found little comfort in the books intended to help readers cope with loss. Though some books encouraged acceptance after losing a loved one, she struggled to accept that her child was gone. "...all the grief books that I was coming across were like book versions of people trying to comfort you and tell you how it's going to go... I realized with the loss of a child, no I'm never going to accept this. I will resign myself to it, but I'm not going to reach a place where I think... oh yeah, I accept Miranda dying tragically and suddenly and missed her whole rest of her life... So, I wanted to graphically describe what it was really like... everything reminds you of them. It's the chair that she sat in, the bed that she slept in, the paths that we walked, the music that we listened to, it's all around you every second of every day..."

In *Story Business: Why Stories Rule the World and How They Can Reinvent Your Business,* co-founder and CEO of fassforward, Gavin McMahon offers an insightful guide on how businesses can use storytelling as a powerful tool to drive successful leadership and communication. Rather than focusing simply on data, McMahon shows how stories can captivate and draw people in and serve as the foundation that shapes and strengthens the culture within a business. When asked how he became involved in business storytelling, he explained, "Over the years I realized that people are always involved in something and so, in the course of our work, it's really been about moving people and getting people to see themselves in the picture wherever they're going, and storytelling really is a fundamental tool to get that done... business has always had people... it's been around for a long time. I think it's enjoying a moment right now, possibly in reaction to AI. People are reaching for what makes us human and storytelling makes us human..."

Reflecting on why storytelling is so effective, McMahon explains it's because humans have a natural tendency to place themselves within the narrative. "...that's a big part of why stories work because they're very much associated with us. Somehow we have a relationship with our story so... by putting you in the center and your brain doing the work of making it real, you really transport yourself and that's why stories are so much stickier." And in regards to the impact AI may have on the future of storytelling, he remarked, "... [AI] won't improve things. Humans are the people that improve things, and so a human and AI can probably write a better story... on the other hand... if you look at the trajectory of what AI is able to do, it does get closer and closer every month or six months, it seems, to writing a better story..."

In *Kiss, Marry, Kill*, previous Writer's Voices guest and author Lori Gold presents her newest novel about three best friends who co-founded a successful health and wellness app and are preparing to take their company public. During their company's summer outing, the women decide to play the popular game, "Kiss, Marry, Kill." What begins as a lighthearted, fun activity turns into reality when they wake up in an alternate universe that mirrors their own, where they must live with the consequences of their choices. Regarding the novel's speculative element, Gold explained why it was important to her story. "So it's very much in our contemporary world, it's not set on another planet, it's not that wild in terms of the speculative element. It still very much feels contemporary to me, yet there's this twist that they're in an alternate universe and what I love about adding that to a novel is it just adds such an extreme environment. So when you put these women who are already at odds over their thoughts of what's going to happen with their company, let's add just one more huge stressor that they're in an alternate reality and how do they get home and yes, there's also a dead body. So I think it allows for really pushing the elements of storytelling."

Centered around the theme of how people make choices, Gold created characters who all approach decision-making differently. Of the three best friends - Aubrey, Ilena, and Mallory - Gold found that she related most to Aubrey, who has made many mistakes in her past and, because of this, is terrified of making new choices. "I'm not a natural risk taker, and so I was getting into this point where I was like, I just don't know if I can make these decisions anymore... and so I felt like I was stuck in this cycle very much like Aubrey and that's a lot of what I brought to the book... but, it's also an exploration of myself going through how I felt about that... and this was written during the pandemic... and I think so many people went through so many life changes because of it... it was just a natural time of... just exploring what kind of person you want to be and how do you want to live life now in this altered universe that is still our real world, but changed very much because of the pandemic."

Lindy West, author and former contributing opinion writer for the *New York Times*, joins Writer's Voices to discuss her latest memoir, *Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane*. As her second memoir, *Adult Braces *follows her first memoir, *Shrill*, which was later adapted into a television series on Hulu. Throughout this book, West takes readers on a road trip while reflecting on her struggles with depression after the success of *Shrill*, and also navigating the ups and downs of a nontraditional marriage. She also explores what it means to be a heavier woman in a society that is often critical of those with larger body types. When it comes to memoir writing, she explains why she prefers it over fiction. "...it felt like a lower barrier to entry. Fiction feels, to this day, intimidating to me... you have to generate the whole world and the whole story yourself... I have a hard time developing deep, vulnerable connections with new people and I discovered that when I started writing memoir, I could present a version of myself to people that felt, maybe, more complete and accurate than the version of myself that I was imperfectly conveying in person..."

Regarding why she included so much personal information in this memoir, West remarked, "It feels good to me. The thing that feels bad to me is presenting a false self and then having to live up to some version of myself that isn't real. There's something about pushing myself to be more and more vulnerable than I have been before and just experimenting with how far can I push this without feeling like I'm selling myself out or being gratuitous..." While such honesty can bring on immense criticism, West believes it strengthens her relationship with longtime readers. "...that's always been a very intimate relationship where people see themselves in my work and get a lot of peace and healing and validation and strength from that, and that is such a gift for me... I mean, what an honor! I guess it feels like if I can do that for them, I'm also doing it for myself... it feels like we're taking care of each other."

In *Beyond Blue and White: The Hidden History of Delftware and the Women Behind the Iconic Ceramic*, decorative art adviser and writer Genevieve Wheeler Brown examines the cultural history of the private collection of 17th and 18th century Delftware that she was introduced to in the summer of 2019. What she thought would just be a few vases and plates turned out to be an incredible treasure trove of seventy-five rare and beautiful Delftware pieces. As she was admiring the collection, at the base of one of the jugs she noticed the initials GVS printed on it and "those three little letters stopped me in my tracks and it sort of cracked open the centuries of forgotten history. So, I was sent out on my own journey which was to really find out who was she and who were these other women that were hidden in Delftware story." In the book, readers will follow the history of this decorative art over the periods and how its roles and meanings have changed throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Brown remarked on what has impressed her most about this art form: "...what's always fascinated me about the decorative arts is that one object can mean so many things over a period and this one collection gave me the ability to tell those stories."

For those unfamiliar with Delftware, Brown explains that it is more than just the typical pieces that come to mind, such as tulip vases, plates with artwork on them, or small square Dutch tiles. "In the ceramic world there are three main types: there's porcelain, stoneware, and earthenware, and earthenware is probably the oldest family in ceramics... so Delftware is tin-glazed earthenware, which is to say it was made by a technique that began in the Middle East in the 9th century as a way to imitate Chinese porcelain... if you dip earthenware in white tin glaze, suddenly it became water tight and it looked very refined and onto that bright surface, the painters could add decoration most often in cobalt, which when fired turned from gray to that brilliant blue that we all recognize, so I sort of think of Delftware as, it's everyday clay that's been transformed into something truly extraordinary..."

Professor, scientist, researcher, engineer, and author Pablo Ribeiro Dias, PhD, joins Writer’s Voices to present his important new book, Climate Changed: The Science of Sustainability and How Each of Us Can Do Our Part. In this practical guide, he provides insightful information about climate change, pollution, and other challenges facing our planet, helping readers understand Read More

In his new book, "Climate Changed: The Science of Sustainability and How Each of Us Can Do Our Part, scientist, engineer, educator, and author Pablo Ribeiro Dias presents an insightful and essential guide about climate change, pollution, and other challenges facing our planet. For him, he became deeply concerned about the environment while he was in school where he grew increasingly aware that our world was headed in the wrong direction. He soon realized, "...being unsustainable was the feeling that I had. So, in school I was very interested in the topic of sustainability - are we heading in the wrong direction, what are the things that we can do? And then when I finished high school, I really liked math, chemistry, physics... I decided to do engineering because of that affinity with these subjects and within the engineering degree I then gravitated towards the environmental side of things, which is the recycling, the idea around energy, inputs, how can we maximize resources, what are the things that can be done around that specific area?"

While Dias initially set out to write the book for his students, he ultimately decided that it would be better received if written for a wider audience. While the number of environmental issues we face today can feel quite overwhelming, he emphasized that people do not need to take drastic measures in order to move our planet towards a greener future. "Every time you put things towards a recycling bin, you're helping already because the separation process is one of the things that takes energy, effort, and money at the end of the process. So if you can do it ahead of the process, it helps... no matter what, don't stop there... the next step is where you want to focus your attention and that's where you're helping the communities that are already doing things... you can donate your time to causes or to groups that are already doing the movements that you want to support, but you can also donate money if you don't have the time because sometimes life gets busy... these people need support, these people need the money to do the things they need to do..."