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Hannah Sward is an amazing literary citizen. She is positive and supportive and just someone you want to know. I’m grateful we connected, and I’m thrilled to share her story about writing her memoir, Strip, which she published two years ago, but is still garnering accolades.
In This Episode
- Hannah Sward’s life story and the inspiration behind her memoir, Strip.
- The impact of loneliness and addiction on childhood and young adulthood
- Refusing to center in shame, despite fraught scenarios
- How Hannah started writing her memoir, and traversed the path of sobriety
- Her 2 page a day process for putting down her truth
- Excavating childhood memories
- Distilling scenes and setting from her dad’s poetry
- The scene she had to rewrite till she got it right
- Navigating family reactions, especially with difficult topics
- Looking at older work and readying it for publication
- Structuring a book in short chapters
- The benefits of mentorship
- Hannah’s next project
Watch on YouTube
About Hannah Sward
Hannah Sward, daughter of the late poet Robert Sward, is the IAN awarding-winning author of Strip: A Memoir. Strip, Swards first book, has received the attention of authors such as Nobel Prize winner, J.M. Coetzee, Melissa Broder, and NYT Bestselling novelist Caroline Leavitt who called Sward, “One of the most moving and honest memoir writers. So eloquent, so brave.”
Sward has spoken on dozens of podcasts and panels with special appearances on NBC CA Live and C-SPAN BookTV. Published in literary journals for the past twenty years, she was a regular contributor at The Fix and Erotic Review. Her most recent work can be read in the LA Times, NY Times (TLS), Huff Post, The Rumpus and others.
Sward is on the board at Right to Write Press, a nonprofit that supports emerging incarcerated writers. She lives in Los Angeles where she is working on a short story collection about love and jealousy.
Connect with Hannah Sward
Order Strip on Estelle’s Bookshop
Episodes Mentioned In This Episode
Episode #120 Writing Days of Wonder Featuring Caroline Leavitt
Episode #87 : Writing Memoir That Reads Like a Novel and Captivates on Every Page with Joanna Rakoff
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