Listen:
What happens when a story that could be told as trauma is instead shaped as triumph?
Blair Glaser joins me to discuss her journey from a Catskills ashram in the 1990s to published author, and how she turned her time in a spiritual organization into her memoir, This Incredible Longing: Finding Myself in a Near Cult Experience. Rather than writing a simple escape narrative, she explores spiritual longing, group dynamics, depression, leadership, and the unexpected skills she developed inside a restrictive system.
Instead of focusing solely on abuse and escape, Blair takes a nuanced approach, examining how that experience helped her find her voice, build professional skills, and ultimately claim her self worth.
This episode is essential listening for memoir writers wrestling with how to structure layered stories, navigate family fallout, and uncover the thematic thread that elevates personal experience into crafted memoir.
In this episode:
- Why her memoir rejects the typical “cult survivor” narrative and how she found unexpected gifts within a harmful experience
- The rookie mistake many memoirists make and how she corrected it in revision
- Her best advice for writers who do not have journals to draw from
- How the ashram taught her to rise through the ranks, create transformational programs, and become a writer, even while struggling with depression
- The family fallout that followed publication and why she chose authentic storytelling over protection
- Why she defines spiritual awakening as “a kind of madness” that rarely makes sense to the people around you
- How to write about depression and suicidal ideation without deadening the reader
- Why writing from therapeutic distance made revisiting trauma feel reflective, even sweet, rather than painful
- How indie publisher Heliotrope Books championed an unconventional story that breaks the cult memoir mold
Watch on YouTube
About Blair:
Blair Glaser is a writer and leadership consultant whose essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, People Magazine, Longreads, Oldster, Quartz, HuffPost, Inside Higher Ed, and others, as well as in literary magazines such as Brevity, Dorothy Parker’s Ashes, In Short, and The Mantlepiece. She’s read stories live at events such as Writer’s Read, Generation Women, and The Woodstock Bookfest. Her debut memoir, This Incredible Longing, was published by Heliotrope in February 2026. She lives with her husband and dog-ter, Vanna White, in Venice Beach, CA. More can be found at www.blairglaser.com.
Connect with Blair
Book: This Incredible Longing: Finding Myself in a Near Cult Experience
Learn with Estelle
If this conversation resonates, there are several ways we can work together right now.
I’ll be at AWP Baltimore 2026.
If you’re attending, please stop by my panel and say hello. I’ll be moderating Double Exposure: Writing, Submitting & Publishing in Literary/Mainstream Outlets with panelists Katie Henken Robinson of Electric Literature, Dionne Ford, and Dennis Sweeney.
New Post on Substack
Why Your Memoir Draft Still Feels Flat
How to craft your writing so it carries emotional echoes and structural cohesion. There is also a special offer for paid subscribers.
Read it here
NEW: Next Editor on Call Event
Our next free Editor on Call event at NYU is officially open for registration.
I’ll be in conversation with Susan Dabbar of PROVOKEDmagazine about what makes a pitch stand out and how to position your work for publication.
Private Small-Group Memoir Class
Next six-week session begins May 2026. Just 2 spots left.
Email freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com to join the waiting list.
Read & Subscribe
New in Electric Literature
For Valentine’s Day, I curated 9 Memoirs About Dating, Desire, and Reclamation for Electric Literature.
Revisiting these books as I draft my own memoir reinforced how memoir becomes transformative not through romance alone, but through reckoning.
Read the full list here.
I’ve also interviewed the Editor in Chief of Electric Literature on Freelance Writing Direct about what editors are looking for and how writers can position their work.
Listen/watch that episode here.
’ve also spoken with several of these memoirists on Freelance Writing Direct about craft, desire, and reinvention. You can listen to those conversations on the podcast.
Watch, Read & Listen
TEDx Talk
How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond
Book
Writing That Gets Noticed
Named a Poets & Writers “Best Book for Writers”
Audiobook available here
Podcast
Freelance Writing Direct
2025 Podcast of the Year, American Writing Awards
About Estelle
Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and author of Writing That Gets Noticed. She is the host, founder, and executive producer of Freelance Writing Direct and an adjunct professor at NYU.
Her work has appeared in more than 150 publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines.
Follow Estelle
Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus
TikTok: @EstelleSErasmus
Twitter/X: @EstelleSErasmus
Bluesky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social
