This Week: How to Turn Your Essays Into a Collection With Nicole Graev Lipson + More

This Thursday, we'll be chatting with the bestselling author about how she crafted her memoir-in-essays, when she first knew this was the approach she wanted to take (and why), and so much more.

Last year, Ahu Terzi, owner of my local bookstore, The Hound Books, invited me to interview Nicole Graev Lipson for the shop’s in-person author talk series. I was thrilled. Getting to know Nicole’s writing through her bestselling memoir-in-essays, Mothers and Other Fictional Characters, was such a treat. I cried through passages that felt like they were speaking to me directly, dog-eared pages that put words to things I wasn’t sure how to explain, and highlighted paragraphs-upon-paragraphs that felt somehow nostalgic, fresh and especially wise all at once. In short, I became a big Nicole Graev Lipson fan.

After our magical conversation under the dim lights in Hound’s intimate little nook of a space, we both felt like there was still so much more to say about the craft side of it all. Enter our Open Book chat here at Narratively Academy this coming Thursday, February 5, at 2 p.m. ET on Substack Live. In a conversation we’re calling, “How to Turn Your Essays Into a Collection,” I’ll pick Nicole’s brain about how she first came to the idea to write an essay collection, whether she started shopping her book around as she was publishing essays, how she decided which pieces to include, and more.

You can join by clicking on this link here. The video will also stream live on our homepage. As always, bring questions if you have them.

If you want to brush up on Nicole’s work ahead of time, you can read an early version of “The New Pretty,” which appears in the book, in Hippocampus here, and in Lit Hub, “The Cords That Bind: On the Elusiveness of Solitude in Motherhood,” an excerpt from an essay that appears in the book, too.

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While we have you…just a reminder that this Wednesday, as always, is Writers’ Room! At the midpoint of each week, members of our community meet up to share a virtual space and write together.

This week’s Writers’ Room is Wednesday, February 4, at 8 a.m. ET, and again at 8 a.m. PT. You can choose to join whichever time works better for you — or even for both.

Click this Zoom link to join us for either session on Wednesday.

(If you are asked for a passcode, enter 824784)

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Want to receive text message alerts each week when we’re about to begin Writers’ Room, or add this weekly event to your calendar?

8 a.m. ET Writers’ Room: head here to (very easily) sign up for text alerts, and here to add the 8 a.m. ET Writers’ Room to your calendar.

8 a.m. PT Writers’ Room: head here to sign up for text alerts and here to add the 8 a.m. PT Writers’ Room to your cal.