About this episode
197 To celebrate Melanie and Nadine's collaborative masterclass, Publishing Your Stories, on May 13, we're bringing back this chat with Melanie Brooks. If you can't make it live, you can still register and catch the replay.---Many of us have carried at least one hard story for years, suffering under the weight of secrecy and silence. But what if you didn't have to carry it anymore? What if writing or telling it could not only free you, but deepen your relationships with your loved ones? Melanie Brooks--author of Writing Hard Stories and A Hard Silence--is here to help us write and tell our hard stories. Covered in this episode:The life changing impact that Writing Hard Stories had on NadineMelanie’s surprising experiences with renowned authors as she researched her bookThe benefits of writing a hard story How and why it gets easierWhat you discover when you’re writing hard stories and how it’s able to help you processThe phases we go throughout when telling hard stories What prompted Nadine to write and publish her hard storyThe 2 books Nadine reread while writing her memoirThe hard silence Melanie had to keep for almost 10 yrsThe long term impact of not being able to speak your truthWhat helps us stay centered while writing hard stories The guilty pleasure TV show that Melanie and Nadine both watch when they need to escape How it felt for Melanie and Nadine to have their vulnerable books be published What it was like for both writers to write about real life characters and what their family's reactions wereWhat narrative medicine is and how it’s changing health care Hear Melanie read a moving passage that gives anyone permission to share their hard story About Melanie:IG: melaniejmbrookswriterwebsite: melaniebrooks.comMelanie Brooks is the author of the memoir A Hard Silence: One daughter remaps family, grief, and faith when HIV/AIDS changes it all (Vine Leaves Press, 2023) and Writing Hard Stories: Celebrated Memoirists Who Shaped Art from Trauma (Beacon Press, 2017) She teaches creative nonfiction in the M.F.A. program at Bay Path University and in the M.F.A. program at Western Connecticut State University and professional writing at Northeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast writing program and a Certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University. She has had numerous interviews and essays on topics ranging from loss and grief to parenting and aging published in the The Boston Globe, HuffPost, Yankee Magazine, Psychology Today, Th
