Memoir Nation

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Marion Roach Smith on Why Your Memoir Should Not Be About You Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

This is a wonderful episode for listeners ready to dive into topics ranging from aboutness, how to think about what you’re writing, and why your memoir should not be about you. Guest Marion Roach Smith shares with listeners her algorithm for writing personal writing, which include five forms: blog posts, personal essay, opinion pieces, long-form essays, and books. This is one-part craft and one-part deep dive into the genre from a writer and teacher of the form who’s been doing this work since the 80s. Not to be missed. On Memoir Milestones, we’re celebrating Kira Higgs's Winnowing: A Memoir of Spiritual Longing in Secular Life.

Marion Roach Smith is the author of four books, including The Memoir Project, A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life (Grand Central Publishing). A former staffer at The New York Times, she has been a commentator on NPR’s All Things Considered and a talk show host on Sirius Satellite Radio. Marion has published in The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Prevention, Good Housekeeping, The Los Angeles Times and more, and currently runs The Memoir Project, an online writing lab, at marionroach.com, where she teaches memoir worldwide.

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David Lauerstein on Truth-Telling as an Act of Defiance Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

This week’s guest, David Lauterstein, joins us to talk about art and writing and purpose. Lauterstein’s book couldn’t NOT catch our eye. Sodomy Gods is a provocative title, and the point of giving his memoir this title was to make a point, to push readers to think about unequal treatment, and to stand proud. Lauterstein’s company, Nasty Pig, similarly pokes at assumptions, biases, and shame so often attached to queer sexuality. He and his partner, Frederick Kearney, launched the sex-positive brand in 1994, at the height of the AIDS crisis, when celebrating gay identity was itself an act of resistance. In this conversation, we talk about writing through grief and defiance, building something bold out of love and loss, and what it costs to tell the truth about who you are, and what doing so makes possible.

David Lauterstein is the founder and CEO of the global queer brand Nasty Pig. He spent decades building a business and community before turning inward to write his memoir, Sodomy Gods, a deeply moving memoir about finding the courage to live authentically, the transformative power of chosen family, enduring love, and building a meaningful life on your own terms. Additionally, the book has been embraced as an important time capsule of being gay in the ’90s in New York amidst the AIDS crisis and is now housed in the Library of Congress, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia University, NYU, and other leading institutions.

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Murray Hill on Purpose as a Lifeline Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

Given our deep love of the show “Somebody, Somewhere,” Memoir Nation is thrilled to have Murray Hill as a guest on the show. We’re celebrating his new memoir, Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man, where he shares how reading the stories of people like Tina Turner and Viola Davis inspired him to tell his own. Murray talks about the value of chosen family, how he chose to write about abuse in his memoir, while also keeping the story upbeat and inspiring. He shares openly about the challenges of writing the book, which took him five years. This is a delightful and candid episode by someone who’s shown how purpose can be a lifeline.

Murray Hill, the self-proclaimed hardest-working middle-aged man in show business, is a one-man entertainment machine: comedian, host, actor, writer, producer, and walking time capsule of classic showbiz charm. Murray has spent decades turning every stage he steps on into his own personal variety show—and we expect the same today. Television audiences know him as the lovable Fred Rococo on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, which won a bunch of awards, but the main one is that it’s one of my favorite shows all-time. Murray’s talents extend beyond performance. He’s served as a guest correspondent for ABC News and Hulu’s Pride Across America, reporting live from the nation’s biggest Pride celebrations. NBC News named him one of the “30 Most Iconic and Influential Drag Performers in Modern History.” And his memoir, Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man just came out.

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Ebony Walden on the Travel Memoir Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

This week we’re honoring the power of the travel memoir, which is a popular subgenre of memoir—and a place where exploration meets self-discovery. The act of travel in fact has much in common with writing memoir, as both pursuits push you outside your comfort zone, and both invite self-interrogation. Not to mention, memoir-writing itself is a form of travel—to your past, into the recesses of personal experience, and into memory. So even if you’re not a travel writer, there’s much to be learned from an episode about the travel memoir. For Memoir Milestones this week, we’re celebrating Lisa Cheek, who has a brand new “mostly true” memoir out called THE BIG DAY: Saying "I Do" Only to Discover I Didn't.Listen in to find out why you should buy this book!

Ebony Walden is an author, filmmaker, and speaker who has traveled to nearly fifty countries and all fifty US states. She is the founder of Ebony Walden Consulting, a racial equity–focused consulting firm, and the creator of Black Beyond Borders, a documentary series and podcast exploring culture, creativity, connection, and cuisine across the African diaspora. In 2025, she won the LA Independent Women Film Award for Best Web Series-Pilot. The series is also an official selection of the Virginia Black Film Festival and has several planned festival screenings in 2026. Ebony also writes Beyond Borders, a weekly Substack newsletter on travel and transformation.

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Jessy Easton on Writing the Hard Thing Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

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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Terria Smith on How Our Adventures Shape Us Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

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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Captain Nia Gilliam on Monoculture Moments in Memoir Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

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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Reyna Grande on Finding Beauty in Your Prison Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

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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Andre Dubus III and Marya Hornbacher on The Cost of Telling the Truth Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

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 hasauthored 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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Roxane Gay and Myriam Gurba on Refusing to Be Nice Aug 17, 2026

Show notes

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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