Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Writing Grief Without Cliché: Eirinie Carson on Friendship, Loss, and The Dead Are Gods
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Writing Grief Without Cliché: Eirinie Carson on Friendship, Loss, and The Dead Are Gods
Send us a text
Have you ever wondered what it really means to grieve a friend—someone dazzling, flawed, and deeply loved? Or how laughter, silence, and even text messages can become part of the story we tell about those we’ve lost?
In today’s episode of Writing Your Resilience, I talk with writer Eirinie Carson about her breathtaking debut memoir The Dead Are Gods and her forthcoming novel Bloodfire, Baby. Together, we explore how writing can both preserve and transform our grief, why it’s so important to show loved ones in their full humanity, and what it means to let go of a story that once felt like holding on to the person themselves. Plus, Eirinie will share one of the most surprising things she learned about how we structure a book and the conversations it encourages as well as what gets silenced.
Episode Highlights
- 2:50: The Power of Capturing Your Memories
- 4:15: Writing for an Audience
- 8:30: Holding Space for Your Experiences
- 11:26: The Challenges of Releasing a Grief Memoir
- 21:00: The Relationship Between Laughter and Grief
- 25:00: How Your Book’s Structure Impacts the Way You Market It
Resources for this Episode:
- Preorder Bloodfire, Baby
- Skunk Anansie
Eirinie’s Bio: Eirinie Carson is a Black British writer living in California. She is a mother of two children and sits on the board of The Writers Grotto in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in LitHub, Mother Magazine, The Notre Dame Review, Mortal Mag, Electric Literature, The Sonora Review and others. She was the NEA Distinguished Fellow at the Hambidge Center, and she and her work have been supported by Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Eirinie's first book, The Dead Are Gods (Melville House, 2023), was critically acclaimed by Oprah Daily, Nylon Magazine, Shondaland and The Washington Post as well as winning a Zibby Award. It was also named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2023.
Connect with Eirinie:
Website: www.eiriniecarson.com
Instagram: @eirinieeee
Bluesky: @eirinieee.bsky.social
Tiktok: @eirinieeee
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
View all episodes
By Lisa Cooper Ellison
5
7070 ratings
Send us a text
Have you ever wondered what it really means to grieve a friend—someone dazzling, flawed, and deeply loved? Or how laughter, silence, and even text messages can become part of the story we tell about those we’ve lost?
In today’s episode of Writing Your Resilience, I talk with writer Eirinie Carson about her breathtaking debut memoir The Dead Are Gods and her forthcoming novel Bloodfire, Baby. Together, we explore how writing can both preserve and transform our grief, why it’s so important to show loved ones in their full humanity, and what it means to let go of a story that once felt like holding on to the person themselves. Plus, Eirinie will share one of the most surprising things she learned about how we structure a book and the conversations it encourages as well as what gets silenced.
Episode Highlights
- 2:50: The Power of Capturing Your Memories
- 4:15: Writing for an Audience
- 8:30: Holding Space for Your Experiences
- 11:26: The Challenges of Releasing a Grief Memoir
- 21:00: The Relationship Between Laughter and Grief
- 25:00: How Your Book’s Structure Impacts the Way You Market It
Resources for this Episode:
- Preorder Bloodfire, Baby
- Skunk Anansie
Eirinie’s Bio: Eirinie Carson is a Black British writer living in California. She is a mother of two children and sits on the board of The Writers Grotto in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in LitHub, Mother Magazine, The Notre Dame Review, Mortal Mag, Electric Literature, The Sonora Review and others. She was the NEA Distinguished Fellow at the Hambidge Center, and she and her work have been supported by Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Eirinie's first book, The Dead Are Gods (Melville House, 2023), was critically acclaimed by Oprah Daily, Nylon Magazine, Shondaland and The Washington Post as well as winning a Zibby Award. It was also named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2023.
Connect with Eirinie:
Website: www.eiriniecarson.com
Instagram: @eirinieeee
Bluesky: @eirinieee.bsky.social
Tiktok: @eirinieeee
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
More shows like Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing
View all
Tara Brach
10,530 Listeners
The Terri Cole Show
1,396 Listeners
Sounds True: Insights at the Edge
1,856 Listeners
On Being with Krista Tippett
10,156 Listeners
For The Wild
1,173 Listeners
10% Happier with Dan Harris
12,726 Listeners
Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson
2,504 Listeners
Where Should We Begin? with Esther Perel
14,948 Listeners
Oprah's Super Soul
31,969 Listeners
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
774 Listeners
We Can Do Hard Things
41,549 Listeners
Pulling The Thread with Elise Loehnen
1,084 Listeners
Astrology of the Week Ahead with Chani Nicholas
655 Listeners
Let’s Talk Memoir
162 Listeners
The Telepathy Tapes
8,186 Listeners