Today’s guest is Antonia Crane, author, academic, and one of my all-time favorite memoirists. In this special episode, the tables are turned as Antonia interviews me about my debut memoir Girl Gone Wild, and we get into what it actually takes to write a book over 15 years and finally share it with the world.
We talk about the long, nonlinear road from first essay to finished memoir, including incubators with Chloe Caldwell, revising through many drafts, and why sometimes you have to write an entire version of a book just to figure out what it isn’t. We also get into structure, how trusting your gut can be more important than following industry expectations, the difference between factual accuracy and emotional truth, the challenge of fact-checking your own life, and why writing about the past often means confronting the parts you’ve tried hardest to forget. We discuss “dark teachers,” perfectionism, and the complicated process of making meaning out of tough experiences like addiction, abusive relationships, and sexual trauma.
Plus, we get into sex work, feminism, the male gaze, and the cultural forces shaping Girl Gone Wild—from growing up in small-town Minnesota to chasing Hollywood dreams and encountering its underbelly.
Subscribe to Antonia's Substack Meow Town. Follow her on Instagram @antoniacrane, and buy your copy of her amazing memoir Spent on Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!
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