81. Self-Declared Spiritual Gurus, Secret Mantras, and Yoga Cults featuring Joelle Tamraz

Joelle Tamraz joins Let’s Talk Memoir for a conversation about yoga cults and self-declared spiritual gurus, searching for something outside ourselves, mind control, transcendental meditation, capturing the emotional vulnerability of our memoir characters, the many drafts in our manuscripts, and the story of how she pried her way out of the decades-long spiritual emotional, financial, and physical abuse she writes about in her new memoir The Secret Practice: Eighteen Years on the Dark Side of Yoga.   Also in this episode: -critique groups -standing by our story -writing as a relationship with ourselves   Books mentioned in this episode: Writing Hard Stories by Melanie Brooks Love Sick by Sue William SIlveman The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls When She Comes Back by Ronit Plank   Joelle is a memoir and life writer who's been putting thoughts to paper ever since she learned about journaling in her eighth-grade English class. Before pivoting to writing full-time, she held senior roles in technology companies for over two decades and owned a yoga studio for ten years. She earned an Honors BA degree in social studies from Harvard and an MBA from INSEAD. She is also a certified life coach and a youth mentor. She has lived in the US and France and now resides in the UK with her husband and two dogs. The Secret Practice: Eighteen Years on the Dark Side of Yoga is her debut memoir.   Connect with Joelle: Website: https://joelletamraz.com X: https://twitter.com/joelletamraz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joelletamraz Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joelletamraz1 Get the book: https://books2read.com/joelletamraz   — Ronit’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer’s Digest, American Literary 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 Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and lives in Seattle with her family where she teaches memoir workshops and 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 Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://twitter.com/RonitPlank https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll’s Fingers