Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me: Jessica Berger Gross
Jessica Berger Gross discusses her new memoir, Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home, walking away from her parents age of twenty-eight, and the importance of boundaries.
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Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me
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From 2010-2017, writer and editor Sari Botton ran an interview series at The Rumpus called “Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me.”
From the intro to Sari’s first interview in this series (with Vivian Gornick): “As a writer of first-person nonfiction, I have lately been paralyzed with fear, mostly about hurting other people through the stories I tell.
Every time I publish a personal essay, someone close to me freaks out – sometimes because I’ve revealed something about myself they’re not comfortable with, but more often because I’ve revealed too much about them, and in a way they find unflattering.
In an effort to embolden myself to move past this crippling fear and go on writing–or give up altogether–I’ve begun interviewing memoirists I admire. I ask them their philosophy about writing about others; how they have handled writing about their parents, siblings, husbands, wives, partners, exes, and everyone in between; and what kind of consequences they’ve suffered as a result.”
Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me: Jason Diamond
Jason Diamond discusses his memoir Searching for John Hughes, confronting his childhood abuse, avoiding his parents, and writing about all of it.
Conversations with Writers Braver than Me: Anne Roiphe
Anne Roiphe on respecting writers’ freedom to express the truth of their experiences, while also respecting their subjects’ prerogative to shun them for it.
Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me: Samantha Irby
Sari Botton sits down with humorist Samantha Irby to talk sex, family conflicts, and the creative freedom of being an orphan.
Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me: Rebecca Walker
Sari Botton and Rebecca Walker talk about the challenges of writing about parents, becoming estranged from them, and then moving together past estrangement, to eventually heal the rift.
The Rumpus Interview with Sari Botton
We sit down with Sari Botton, long-time Rumpus contributor and author of our "Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me" column, to talk about her new anthology, Goodbye To All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York, and more.
Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me: Melissa Febos
In Whip Smart, Melissa Febos unflinchingly chronicles five years in her early twenties when she was a dominatrix and heroin user. But the book is about so much more than those details.
Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me: Marco Roth
Sometimes I fantasize about expanding these conversations beyond the one-on-one—getting a few particular writers into a room together to discuss the risky business of writing the sort of memoir or…
Conversations With Writers Braver Than Me: Cheryl Strayed
Sari Botton talks with Cheryl Strayed about how she keeps finding the courage to be honest in her work—about herself and others around her.
Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me: Emily Carter
I realize I’m especially drawn to memoirs, novels and story collections in which the author or protagonist is at odds with one parent or both, and wrestles with feeling like a tremendous disappointment to them.
Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me: Mike Albo
I've been living in NYC for years so I am cautiously optimistic about everything.
Conversations with Writers Braver Than Me: Jon-Jon Goulian
What is the chance of one of those books living up to its pre-release hype? Of earning back its advance?
