Author Elisabeth Sharp McKetta came back to the Bunker After Party to talk about her latest book, Awake with Asashoryu and Other Essays.
She joined Brad to tell some stories about why it’s so hard to sit in the chair to write, why writers only really believe the bad reviews, what it means to be a writer, and the joy of making things (and being in a family that makes things)!
Sit back for a frenetic hour of writer conversation! And you can catch our full Jam interview in Episode 159.
About Elisabeth Sharp McKetta
I am a storyteller and the author of ten books in many genres, most recently She Never Told Me About the Ocean, a mythology-infused novel about mothers and daughters (2021), Awake with Asashoryu: Essays (2022), and What Doesn’t Kill Her, a collective memoir of women’s resilience stories that I co-edited (2021). I have published many poems and delivered the TEDx talk “Edit your life like a poem.”
I have literature degrees from Harvard (B.A.), Georgetown (M.A.), and the University of Texas at Austin (Ph.D). I wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on the intersections between memoir and myth, a concept that informs my teaching and writing (and my entire way of looking at the world, as detailed in this Harvard Magazine article.) Since 2012 I have taught writing at Harvard Extension School, where I won their 2018 James E. Conway Excellence in Teaching Writing Award. I also tutor for Oxford University’s Undergraduate Diploma in Creative Writing and teach private and community workshops.
I spent my childhood living in Austin, Texas and the majority of my adulthood so far living in Boise, Idaho, with a lovely detour in Cornwall, UK. I live with my husband and two children. In my free time I love to make up stories with my young, hike, travel, read, make vegan soups, make new friends, and drink tea with old friends.
