EPISODE CXXI | "ROAD TO INSPIRATION" w/ LETA MCCOLLOUGH SELETZKY

Originally from Fairfax, VA, essayist and memoirist Leta McCollough Seletzky is deeply rooted in Memphis, TN. At the tender age of three she moved to the city known as the home of the blues with her mom who worked as a reporter for the Commercial Appeal. After graduating from Craigmont High School, Leta ventured off to college as Political Science and French major at Northwestern University. She later entered into law school in Washington DC and suddenly felt the need to tell her father's story. This precious memoir took a few years to begin as Leta's life was uprooted due to her husband's job moving the entire family overseas to Central Asia in Kazakhstan. Her international travels did not end there with the next move being in Nigeria which is the sovereign country located in West Africa. The year was 2014 that brought about a major plot twist for Leta's life as she and her family was nestling into their new world in Lagos. The Ebola outbreak struck which caused Leta to uproot yet again and move to the states in Lake Tahoe, NV. Despite the emotional and psychological challenges this caused, Leta enrolled into a creative writing class and started producing pieces that were published in a plethora of notable publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine, The New York Times and The Atlantic just to name a few. In this podcast, you will discover how Leta was finally able to begin writing the story of her father that tells the story behind his involvement in the CIA and why he is pictured in a famous photo at the time of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. You will also learn that Leta is a mission-based writer raising three boys along with her husband. She truly feels that writers should tell their stories and provides some of the best advice I have heard to get you started.