Episode 282: Jeannine Ouellette on Wanting to be Devastated, Self-Scrutiny, and Her Memoir ‘The Part That Burns’

Become a Patron!

By Brendan O’Meara

Jeannine Ouellette (@_elephantrock) is the author of the memoir The Part That Burns, a devastating book about childhood, sexual abuse, motherhood, and so much more. It’s published by Split/Lip Press.

It was a book I couldn’t wait to get back to because I needed to know how Jeannine managed to — I don’t know — survive. She broke my heart a number of times, but not in a self-pitying way.

In any case, she’s here for Ep. 281, this after we met at Hippocamp in August.

Here’s a little blurb from Jeannine’s website:

Her stories and essays have appeared widely, and her work has been supported with fellowships from Millay Colony for the Arts and Brush Creek Foundation. She is the recipient of a Margarita Donnelly Prize, Curt Johnson Fiction Award, Proximity Essay Award, Masters Review Emerging Writer’s Award, two recent Pushcart nominations, as well as awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Medill School of Journalism. Her work has been praised by Joyce Carol Oates as “simply beautiful, precisely imagined, poetically structured, compelling, and vivid.” Jeannine teaches creative writing with the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, and is the founder and director of Elephant Rock, an independent creative writing program in Minneapolis. She earned her MFA in fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts and is working on her first novel.

The show has a new Instagram handle, @creativenonfictionpodcast, and you can always keep the conversation going on Twitter @CNFPod.

And you know I’d rather you sign up for my Up-to-11 Newsletter. Signup form is below you and to your right. Book recs, book raffles, cool stuff curated by me for you, CNFin’ happy hour or writing group, writing prompts, fun and entertaining. First of the month. No spam. Can’t beat it.

Consider supporting the show via Patreon patreon.com/cnfpod. Shop around if you want to support the community. I just paid out the writers from the last audio magazine. You make that possible. The show is free but it ain’t cheap.

Brendan’s Monthly Newsletter: First of the month! No spam! Can’t beat it!

* indicates required