Memoir Nation

How do you get into a story that centers events you don’t remember because you weren’t alive to witness them? That’s what we’re covering today in an episode that reaches into considerations of intergenerational trauma, and how even what’s not said gets transmitted from one generation to the next. Author Rich Benjamin shares with us the story of his family’s tumultuous past in Haiti, and its impact on his grandfather, who never knew, and his mother, who chose silence over disclosure. Rich speaks about research, about how it can be easier to write “third-hand” about traumas you didn’t live through, and how doing the work to uncover stories like these can break the cycles of trauma. In this week’s book trend, we actually cover a positive AI trend—unheard of. Listen in for more.
Rich Benjamin is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and memoirist whose work investigates political, social, and economic power through deeply researched storytelling. Rich is the author of the memoir, Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History, and Searching for Whitopia, a groundbreaking immersive study that presciently examined the rise of white anxiety and nationalism in the United States. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other major publications, and he is a frequent commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. His memoir was just shortlisted for the 2026 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards.
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For many, spirituality is a private inner journey filled with nuance and informed by culture, family of origin, life experiences both positive and negative, and much more. Guest Alicia Jo Rabins shares her own journey at the heart of her new memoir, When We’re Born We Forget Everything—one that started with a fairly typical secular Jewish suburban upbringing and later twists and turns through the spiritual, the sacred, and the mystical. Her memoir is a beautiful mosaic that invites readers to consider and contemplate their own understanding of the Divine. This week, inspired by Alicia Jo, Brooke and Grant do just that, in addition to talking about publishing’s relationship to spiritual (and religious) works.
Alicia Jo Rabins a writer, musician, performer, and feminist Torah teacher. Her spiritual memoir, out on Schocken Books, is When We’re Born We Forget Everything. She is the author of four additional books, including the poetry collections Divinity School and Fruit Geode. As a songwriter, violinist and composer, Rabins tours internationally with Girls in Trouble, her indie-folk song cycle about women in Torah. Visit her at www.aliciajo.com.
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This week’s Memoir Nation introduces a new memoir challenge and invitation to writers to come check out what we’re calling Memoir Showers at Memoir Nation. Join our community for a whole month of writing prompts, community support, and confetti—of course.
And what’s up with this new slew of celebrity pet memoirs? Do you find this week’s book trend troubling or amusing? Tune in to see what you think!
Cohosts Grant Faulkner and Brooke Warner present today’s show. Together they’re the cofounders of Memoir Nation, just one of the many hats each of them wear. Both of them are memoir champions and have memoirs-in-progress.
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We have a gorgeous interview this week on Memoir Nation with poet, novelist, and now memoirist Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Rachel’s new memoir, The Flower Bearers, is about two incidents that happened in short succession—the death of her best friend, poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, and the stabbing of her husband, author Salman Rushdie. Her book and this interview are an exploration of the layers of grief, how we show our layers of experience on the page, and so much more. This memoir is also our book club pick on Memoir Nation this month (happening March 27), so if you love the interview, check out Memoir Nation and join us for Book Club. Details at: https://memoir-nation.mn.co
Rachel Eliza Griffiths is many things: a poet, a visual artist, and a novelist—and now a memoirist. She is a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize and was a finalist for a NAACP Image Award. Rachel is the author of several collections of poetry. Her third collection of poetry, Mule & Pear was selected for the 2012 Inaugural Poetry Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Her fourth collection of poetry, Lighting the Shadow was selected as a finalist for the 2015 Balcones Poetry Prize and the 2016 Phillis Wheatley Book Award in Poetry. Her debut novel, Promise, was a Kirkus Reviews and Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year, and she just published her memoir, The Flower Bearers, earlier this year.
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This week Memoir Nation is tackling two areas of interest to most writers: writing residencies and book festivals. Guest Janine Kovac, in addition to being an author herself, adjudicates submissions for various residencies and is co-director of Litquake's Lit Crawl. As such, she reads hundreds of applications and submissions and has some pro tips on how authors should be thinking about their applications if they want to throw their hats in the ring. A great episode for anyone gunning for some private time away to write your work-in-progress or to be in the public eye to promote your latest book. Tune in or bookmark it for later!
Janine Kovac is a former professional ballet dancer who writes about power dynamics and women's bodies. Her most recent book is the memoir, The Nutcracker Chronicles: A Fairytale Memoir. Janine is the co-director of Litquake's Lit Crawl and an alumna of several writing residencies including Hedgebrook, MacDowell, Mesa Refuge, WordSpace Studios, Vashon Artist Residency, In Cahoots, and the Mineral School. She adjudicates submissions for several writing organizations including Litquake and has served on the jury for U.C. Berkeley's Leadership Award.
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