Living The Next Chapter: Inspiring Conversations with Bestselling Authors and Writing Experts - E485 - Wendy Dale - Memoir Writing for Geniuses, Peru and Grandma's Pies

E485 - Wendy Dale - Memoir Writing for Geniuses, Peru and Grandma's Pies

01/10/25 • 51 min

Living The Next Chapter: Inspiring Conversations with Bestselling Authors and Writing Experts

EPISODE 485 - Wendy Dale - Memoir Writing for Geniuses, Peru and Grandma's Pies
About Wendy Dale
"Wendy is the best instructor I've had, bar none. She continually pushes you and never lets you settle for good enough. She is knowledgeable, patient, helpful, and has an excellent sense of humor! I would take a class again with her anytime." -- Sandra Carpenter
"Wendy is phenomenal! I've taken dozens of writing courses and completed an MFA in creative writing. Never have I received such useful instruction. I'm happy that I'll be starting her advanced course next week." -- Mary Rowland
"Wendy exceeded my expectations. I was stunned by how much practical information I learned and by how much I grew as a writer. The class was, in a word, invaluable!" -- Carly Van Thomme
"Wendy encourages her students to dig deeper -- and the results show. I highly recommend her. She is insightful, conscientious, and supportive. I couldn't ask for more." -- Michele Meek
"Wendy is that tough critic who can be the best thing that happens to your manuscript." -- Lucey Bowen
Acclaim for Wendy's memoir
"Deeply funny."
– Vogue Magazine
"Wry, funny."
– Outside Magazine
"Mix David Sedaris, Lucille Ball, and a fifth of tequila in a blender [and] you get Wendy Dale, who is quite possibly the funniest travel writer since Homer. But strain off the foamy giggles and you’re left with a raw, smart, and passionate woman in search of herself and awestruck at the beauty of even the ugliest corners of the earth."
– Deborah C. Kogan, author of Shutterbabe"
"Dale has an amazing ability not only to find intrigue and drama and hardship but to meet them all with an undampened sense of humor and a roving eye for the absurd. And by getting entangled in other people’s lives, as opposed to hiking through rain forests, she enjoys glimpses into worlds forever closed to the average tourist. A few years ago, Janet Malcolm, writing in the New Yorker, complained that she ‘always found travel writing a little boring’ because ‘travel itself is a low-key emotional experience, a pallid affair in comparison with ordinary life’ ... which is absolutely true, unless you travel like Wendy Dale."
– Thomas Swick, travel editor of the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
"This is a wonderful book – not a subversive treatise on rule-breaking as the title might suggest, but a witty, insightful memoir of a young woman from an offbeat, though well-traveled family."
– Bookpage
"With grace, charm and abundant humor, Dale narrates her meandering story of a childhood regained, ‘a chance to make rash decisions, to take wild risks, to lose everything knowing I’d still have plenty of time to earn it all back.’"
– Time Out New York
"Funny, impulsive, and alluringly naïve, Wendy Dale is repeatedly swept into adventure and trouble and love, mostly when she’s looking the other way. I had a great time going along on her wacky journey. I read the book in one sitting, reluctantly getting up midway to make a sandwich, placing the open book on the counter so I didn’t have to stop reading."
– Rita Golden Gelman, author of Tales of a Female Nomad
https://www.geniusmemoirwriting.com/

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E484 - Zeeva Bukai - The Anatomy of Exile, A modern-day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and a Jew

EPISODE 484 - Zeeva Bukai - The Anatomy of Exile, A modern-day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and a Jew
Zeeva Bukai is a fiction writer, born in Israel and raised in New York City. Her stories have appeared in OfTheBook Press, Carve Magazine, Pithead Chapel, The Master’s Review, jewishfiction.net, Mcsweeney’s Quarterly Concern, Image Journal, December Magazine, The Jewish Quarterly and elsewhere. Her honors include a fellowship at the New York Center for Fiction, residencies at Hedgebrook Writer’s Colony, and Byrdcliff AIR program in Woodstock NY.
She received The Master’s Review fiction prize, the Curt Johnson Prose Award, and the Lilith Fiction Award. Her work has been anthologized in Frankly Feminist: Short Stories by Jewish Women from Lilith Magazine, and Out of Many: Multiplicity and Divisions in America Today. She holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and is the Assistant Director of Academic Support at SUNY Empire State University. Her debut novel, The Anatomy of Exile, will be published by Delphinium Books in January 2025. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
The Abadi Family saga begins when a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story between a Palestinian and a Jew ends in predictable tragedy. The family flees to America to mend, but encounters only more turmoil that threatens to tear the family apart.
In the wake of the 1967 Six Day War, Tamar Abadi’s world collapses when her sister-in-law is killed in what appears to be a terror attack but what is really the result of a secret relationship with a Palestinian poet. Tamar’s husband, Salim, is an Arab and a Jew. Torn between the two identities, and mourning his sister’s death, he uproots the family and moves them to the US. As Tamar struggles to maintain the integrity of the family’s Jewish Israeli identity against the backdrop of the American “melting pot” culture, a Palestinian family moves into the apartment upstairs and she is forced to reckon with her narrow thinking as her daughter falls in love with the Palestinian son.
Fearing history will repeat itself, Tamar's determination to separate the two sets into motion a series of events that have the power to destroy her relationship with her daughter, her marriage, and the family she has worked so hard to protect. This powerful debut novel explores Tamar’s struggle to keep her family intact, to accept love that is taboo, and grapples with how exile forces us to reshape our identity in ways we could not imagine.
https://www.zeevabukai.com/

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E486 - Steve MacBeth - No Names No Pack Drill - An Oral History of Canadians at War in Afghanistan

EPISODE 486 - Steve MacBeth - No Names No Pack Drill - An Oral History of Canadians at War in Afghanistan
Steve MacBeth, a three-tour Afghan war veteran, offers a compelling, first-hand account of Canada’s involvement in one of the most protracted and most complex conflicts of the 21st century. Through vivid and unfiltered interviews with 150 frontline soldiers, this collection captures the diverse experiences of those who served.
These soldiers share their stories from the front lines of Afghanistan, detailing the challenges, sacrifices, and moments of camaraderie they encountered. The title, inspired by the military expression "no names, no pack drill"—intended to ensure lessons are learned from soldiers' experiences without identifying those involved—reflects the humility and quiet professionalism of the Canadian soldiers, who are culturally uncomfortable with recognition for their service.
From harrowing combat operations to the calmer, often overlooked aspects of deployment, these personal stories provide a raw and intimate portrait of the war. Shared from one veteran to another, these stories are told using the soldier’s vernacular, ensuring that the voices were genuine.
This book is not about building discourse on Canada’s strategy in Afghanistan. It leaves complex political discussions behind. It does not try to put the experiences into context or explain who was right or wrong or whether the tactical decisions made were good or bad. It strips the events down to their rawest form and shares them in the words of those who lived in Canada’s experience in Afghanistan.
The work bears witness to the experiences of the average soldier and provides a historical first-person record for future generations. This gripping collection reveals the untold human side of modern warfare, shedding light on its profound impact on those who served.
https://a.co/d/0bNyKLB
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-macbeth-364aa7156/
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