Hi Mindful Writers,
The replay of this month’s Liminal Writing Live is now up — this one with Emily Conway of A Thin Space, one of the first friends I made on Substack when I joined in February 2023.
Emily was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, and she’s been living in the thin space she writes about — one foot in the ordinary world, one foot in something less tangible — more intensely than ever since she received that news. We talked about how the diagnosis pushed her further into that other half of the threshold, and how writing close to the bone, in present tense, close to who she actually is, has become a way of giving her experience care.
We got into the two ways people tend to respond to rupture — hardening and tightening to feel safe, or opening and leaning in — and how writing down what’s happening is often the only way either of us actually finds out what we feel. Emily talked about growing up in a household that didn’t encourage her to have a self, and how a self and a voice only emerged for her about ten years ago, in her own version of upheaval.
We also talked about the strange relief of only ever being able to be who you are, right now, however foggy and always changing that self is — and how that’s both a small grief and a kind of freedom. And about finding, through Substack, other people who never could do cocktail conversation either — who go straight for the big things instead.
It’s an honest, unhurried chat about writing as a way of tending to a life that’s shifted underneath you. I hope you enjoy the replay.
The next Liminal Writing Live will be on 22nd July at 4pm UK with my guest Mel Moseley who writes Mel’s Messy Love Lab.
Want to be a guest? Get in touch as I love hearing about everyone else’s experiences.
With love,
Amanda 💙
P.S. Applications are now open for Mindful Memoir, my new 12-week course for writers who want to go deep with their own story. We use embodied writing practices, mindfulness and somatic awareness to unlock the memories that live not just in the mind but in the body. It’s the 6-week original course now with 6 brand new additional modules to go deeper. Starting September, with early-bird pricing until the end of July. Info here.
