Live This Thursday: #1 NYT Bestselling Author Susannah Cahalan
The author of 'Brain on Fire'—and guest judge for our 2025 Memoir Prize!—joins us to talk through how to turn your most vulnerable experiences into compelling first-person narratives.
The incredible Susannah Cahalan is the guest judge for the 2025 Narratively Memoir Prize (18 days left to submit!), which we could not be more excited about. Susannah is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire, which has sold over one million copies, been translated into more than 20 languages and was adapted into a Netflix movie. (Since then, she’s published two more books, The Great Pretender, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s 2020 Science Book Prize, and The Acid Queen, which was just published earlier this year!)
Brain on Fire, Susannah’s memoir, chronicles her descent into unexplained, sudden madness while doctors tried to figure out what was happening in time to save her. In it, Susannah spares no details about what happened during this “lost month” and her slow, painful journey to recovery.
We can’t think of anyone more perfectly suited to judge our Memoir Prize. If you write personal essay and have struggled with how to get honest and vulnerable, you won’t want to miss our Open Book conversation this week with Susannah.
Narratively’s executive editor Jesse Sposato will interview Susannah about her writing career, how she got her memoir published and how she managed to write about the worst thing that’s ever happened to her — both emotionally, and technically since she lost a lot of her memory of it while she was sick. Plus we’ll take questions for Jesse and Susannah about what we’re looking for in submissions to the Narratively Memoir Prize and how to make your memoir sing.
Join us this Thursday, November 20, at 1 p.m. ET on Substack Live by clicking on this link. The video will also stream live on our homepage.
And….it’s almost Wednesday, which as always means it’s just about time for 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 tomorrow, Wednesday, November 19, 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)
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.