MTS 20: Reinventing the addiction memoir & writing as recovery with Tim Hillegonds

Timothy J. Hillegonds is the author of The Distance Between (Nebraska, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Tim's work has appeared in The Guardian, the Chicago Tribune, Salon, The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, Assay, Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, River Teeth, Baltimore Review, Brevity, Under the Gum Tree, Hippocampus Magazine, The Fourth River, Midway Journal, RHINO, Bluestem Magazine, r.k.v.r.y. quarterly, and others.In 2019, Tim was named by the Guild Literary Complex as one of their thirty "Writers to Watch,” and he currently serves as a contributing editor for Slag Glass City, a digital journal of the urban essay arts.In the episode we talk about: The practice of writing in rehab at the beginning of a serious writing life and as an integral part of healingComing to nonfiction as a result of traumaGetting an undergrad degree at age 30Recovery as never being singular, we're constantly recovering from one thing or anotherNever writing the same book twice and giving yourself permission to try something differentCrafting a persona in creative nonfictionTruth vs subjectivity in nonfiction, honesty in recoveryUsing the second-person perspective in nonfictionThe challenges of an addiction memoir and a story of abuse from the perpetrator’s point of viewThe benefits of publishing with a university pressWriting visceral scenes of using after being soberThe moral inventory of self and wrestling with privilege working on his behalfHow to reinvent a story like an addiction that is, let’s be honest, so played outWriters Hope Edelman, Michele Morano , and  Sheryl St. Germain Find Tim online at timhillegonds.com.Visit us online at moretothestorypodcast.com and visit Under the Gum Tree at underthegumtree.com. Follow Under the Gum Tree Twitter and Instagram @undergumtree. Follow me on Twitter @justjanna and @jannamarlies on Instagram. If you’re looking for a place to find more support with writing your true personal story, join the More To The Story community! Get full access to More to the Story with Janna Maron at moretothestory.substack.com/subscribe