Debbie Weil talks to friend and exceptional writing teacher Clementina Esposito about memoir, the difficulty of sharing ugly truths, and why making meaning through writing matters. 

Clementina is founder of the Clementina Collective, a collaborative created to help entrepreneurs and visionary leaders advance their causes and their careers through writing and speaking. 

In Clementina’s words: “No one writes alone, everyone values the power of a well-told story, and ugly truths become beautiful in the end.” 

Debbie met Clementina a half dozen years ago when Clementina coached her in a public speaking program. They’ve been friends ever since.

Clementina has been teaching memoir writing to a group of older students (60s to 80s). She and Debbie discuss the importance of reading aloud – of performing – what you’ve written and how maybe that should be a  goal instead of publication. Reading out loud builds community and intimacy. 

They also talk about the difficulty and challenge of finding your voice and speaking your truth and sharing it with others – especially if you think it’s an ugly truth. 

And they conclude by agreeing that anyone can be a writer. Even if you doubt yourself, sharing your writing is how you make meaning of your life… and help your readers do the same.

Mentioned in this episode:

• About Clementina
• Clementina Collective
• Clementina on LinkedIn
• Clementina’s Blog
• Island Women Speak (the women’s storytelling event created by Debbie)
• “Why I didn’t drive off the bridge” (the talk Clementina worked with Debbie on)

Debbie’s recommended books about memoir writing:

• The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr (Harper Perennial, 2016)
• The Memoir Project by Marion Roach Smith (Grand Central Publishing, 2011)
• Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (Shambala Anniversary Edition, 2016)

Get the inside skinny on every episode of [B]OLDER:

Subscribe to Debbie’s newsletter for the inside story about every episode. You will also get her 34-page writing guide: https://bitly.com/debbie-free-guide.

Request from Debbie:

If you’ve been enjoying the podcast, please take a moment to leave a short review on Apple Podcasts. It really makes a difference in attracting new listeners.

Connect with Debbie:

• debbieweil.com
• [B]OLDER podcast
• Email: [email protected]
• Blog: Gap Year After Sixty
• Facebook: @debbieweil
• Instagram: @debbieweil
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/debbieweil
• Twitter: @debbieweil

Our Media Partners:

• CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
• MEA and with thanks to Chip Conley
• Next For Me (former media partner and in memory of Jeff Tidwell)