EPISODE · Dec 4, 2025 · 23 MIN
Your Memoir Isn’t Too Weird: How to Write the Mystical with Confidence with Linda McKittrick
from Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing · host Lisa Cooper Ellison
Send us Fan Mail Many writers find themselves wrestling with experiences that fall outside linear time, logic, or the way stories are “supposed” to unfold. In this final Ask Me Anything episode of 2025, I sit down with my student Linda to talk about how to weave the spiritual, the uncanny, and the beyond-belief into memoir with clarity, groundedness, and literary intention. From magical realism to lyric memoir, we explore the craft choices that honor your truth while still guiding your readers. Episode Highlights 2:24: Writing About the Spiritual and Mystical 6:12: Magical Realism in Memoir 11:11: Tackling the Mystical Through the Lyric Memoir Resources for this Episode: Ditch Your Inner Critic Now Telling the Truth: Memoir, Myth and Magical Realism 10 Lyrical Memoirs That Will Enchant You Beloved by Toni Morrison (novel) The Warrior Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston (memoir) On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (autofiction) Craving Spring by Anne Batchelder (memoir) We The Animals by Justin Torres (autofiction) Be with Me Always by Randon Billings Noble (lyric memoir/essay collection) The Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (lyric memoir) The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch (lyric memoir) My Name Means Fire by Atash Yaghmaian (memoir) The Queen’s Path by Stacey Simmons Linda McKittrick’s bio: Linda is an avid rancher and gardener, former HIV/AIDS, and hospice social worker, living in the Sonoran Desert. She is currently working on a memoir. When she is not writing she enjoys seed saving, creating in the kitchen, and participating in citizen science projects for bats and fireflies. Connect with Linda: Email: [email protected] Building Better Memoir Scenes: https://janefriedman.com/building-better-memoir-scenes-with-lisa-cooper-ellison/ Connect with your host, Lisa: Get Your Free Copy of Ditch Your Inner Critic: https://lisacooperellison.com/subscribe/ Website | Instagram | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn Produced by Espresso Podcast Production
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Send us Fan Mail Many writers find themselves wrestling with experiences that fall outside linear time, logic, or the way stories are “supposed” to unfold. In this final Ask Me Anything episode of 2025, I sit down with my student Linda to talk about how to weave the spiritual, the uncanny, and the beyond-belief into memoir with clarity, groundedness, and literary intention. From magical realism to lyric memoir, we explore the craft choices that honor your truth while still guiding your reader...
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Your Memoir Isn’t Too Weird: How to Write the Mystical with Confidence with Linda McKittrick
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