65. Authenticity, Recovery, and Advocating for Survivors in Memoir featuring Maya Golden

Maya Golden joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about extensive complex childhood trauma and the repercussions of sexual abuse, recovering from addiction, approaching memoir writing with authenticity and vulnerability, the effect of religious and societal pressure on women, telling a story from the safety of adulthood, and her memoir The Return Trip.

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Also in this episode:

-setting boundaries

-self-care and taking breaks

-protecting early drafts

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr

What my Bones Know by Stephanie Foo

Heartberries by Terese Marie Mailhot

Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming

Maya Golden is an Associated Press-winning and Emmy-nominated multimedia journalist. She is the winner of the Excellence in My Market Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the founder of the 1 in 3 Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides recovery and counseling resources to survivors of sexual trauma with little to no income in East Texas. Maya has been featured on Bally Sports, Fox Sports College, ESPN 2 and 3 and other broadcast mediums including Blackgirlnerds.com, Salon and Insider. She speaks as a survivor for organizations such as the Children’s Advocacy Center, Court Appointed Special Advocates and Kids Aspiring to Dream. The Texas A&M alum’s career includes experience as a sports anchor/reporter and television production editor, newscast writer, field producer and print writer. She is a member of the Writer’s League of Texas, Women’s Fiction Writers Association and the East Texas Writers Guild.

Connect with Maya:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Maya_Golden

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goodasgolden

Facebook: facebook.com/MGBWrites

Website: www.goodasgolden.com

Get Maya’s Book:

Amazon: https://a.co/d/gXivHue

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-return-trip-maya-golden/1143537245?ean=9781990253669

Blackstone Publishing: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-return-trip-maya-golden/1143537245?ean=9781990253669

BookShop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-return-trip-a-memoir-maya-golden/20099457?ean=9781990253669

Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Writer’s Digest, The Rumpus, American Literary Review, Hippocampus, The Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named a 2021 Best True Crime Book by Book Riot and was a Finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards and the Housatonic Book Awards. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the Best of the Net, and the Best Microfiction Anthology, and her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award and the Page Turner Award for Short Stories. She is creative nonfiction editor at The Citron Review and lives in Seattle with her family where she is working on her next book.

More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com

Sign up for monthly podcast and writing updates: https://bit.ly/33nyTKd

Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

More about WHEN SHE COMES BACK, a memoir: https://ronitplank.com/book/

More about HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE, a short story collection: https://ronitplank.com/home-is-a-made-up-place/

Connect with Ronit:

https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

https://twitter.com/RonitPlank

https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank

Background photo: Canva

Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography

Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers