The Power of Nonfiction: How Books Can Help Us Through Life Crises

Join moderators Marni Freedman and Anastasia Hipkins for a discussion with four bold, powerful writers who are tackling myths, misconceptions, and falsehoods; bravely sharing their own truths; and providing paths to acceptance, understanding, and healing.

Featuring:

• Nancy Johnson – Things My Mama Never Told Me
• Gina Simmons, Ph.D. – Frazzlebrain
• Madonna Treadway – Eric Hoffer Award winner – author of Six Healing Questions
• Sue William Silverman – Multi-award-winning author of four memoirs – author of How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences

Event Sponsor: Sally W. Buffington, author of A Place Like This

Meet the Speakers

Marni Freedman is a screenwriter, playwright, award-winning author, writing coach, and co-founder of the San Diego Writers Festival. After graduating from USC film school, Marni began her career bringing her play, “Two Goldsteins on Acid,” to the stage, after which it was made into the film, “Playing Mona Lisa,” produced by Disney. She co-authored the play, A Jewish Joke, about a 1950s comedy writer facing the Hollywood Blacklist, which won the NY Solo Show for best drama, critics’ choice for the San Diego Union-Tribune, and was recently produced Off-Broadway. Marni leads the Memoir Certificate Program for San Diego Writers, Ink, produces the San Diego Memoir Writers Association’s theatrical Memoir Showcase, and is an editor of Shaking the Tree: short. brazen. memoir. She is also a writing coach and a therapist for artists and writers. Her first book, 7 Essential Writing Tools: That Will Absolutely Make Your Writing Better (And Enliven Your Soul), is an Amazon Bestseller. Her second award-winning book is Permission to Roar: For Female Thought Leaders Ready to Write their Book. You can find Marni at www.marnifreedman.com, a writing hub to help writers find their authentic voice.

Anastasia Zadeik Hipkins is a freelance writer, editor, and writing coach. She regularly performs in narrative non-fiction showcases, including So Say We All’s VAMP and the San Diego Memoir Showcase, and her work has appeared in The Literary Vine Review and Shaking the Tree.

Having received a BA in psychology from Smith College, Anastasia worked for an international neuropsychological research firm before and while raising her children, living overseas from 1991-2000. After returning stateside, she and her family settled in the San Diego area where, over the last nineteen years, she has volunteered and served as a board member for a variety of nonprofit organizations dedicated to health, education, and the arts. She currently lives in Mission Hills with her husband and empty-nest rescue dog, Charlie.

Nancy Johnson is a retired high school English teacher, writer, wife, mother, and grandmother. She published articles in La Mesa Courier Newspaper, Discovering My City La Mesa Magazine, and English Literature Journal. Her short stories appear in Sunshine Noir II (Working and Walking the Boulevard), Shaking the Tree II (Glass Shards), and Shaking the Tree III (The Sky is Falling). Her blog is Slightly Squinting. She had a blast writing and performing “The Armpit Years” for So Say We All. She volunteers for San Diego Writers Festival and San Diego Writer’s Ink. Her book, Things My Mama Never Told Me, will be launched in 2020. She is a student of Marni Freedman, V.A.M.P., Writer’s Elements, all the writers who have gone before her, and the amazing teenagers who have shared their lives with her and who will remain part of her forever.

Sue William Silverman is an award-winner author of “How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences”; “Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey through Sexual Addiction”; “Because I Remember Terror, Father, I Remember You”; “The Pat Boone Fan Club: My Life as a White Anglo-Saxon Jew”; and “Fearless Confessions: A Writer’s Guide to Memoir.” She teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Dr. Gina Simmons Schneider is a licensed psychotherapist, certified coach, corporate trainer, and codirector of Schneider Counseling and Corporate Solutions. She has more than 25 years’ experience helping individuals, couples, and organizations manage difficult emotions and conflicts. Her book Frazzlebrain: Break Free from Anxiety, Anger, and Stress Using Advanced Discoveries in Neuropsychology, published by Central Recovery Press, launches February, 2022.

Still, life went on. Her family did not dwell on the past. In fact, it was not really talked about at all. The feeling was that nothing could be done about the past, so why bring it up? Best to move on and do what you can today. And so, as a child, Madonna learned to ignore her emotions and do what was needed without much drama.

This was her way of life until she reached her forties. It was at this point that she decided to explore what happened to her and how it had impacted her life. As she explored she remembered that as a child, after the death of her parents, she had often felt different from her peers, like she was on the outside looking in. She didn’t tell anyone about how she felt, because on some level, she felt a sense of shame about feeling so different. No matter what she might have shared with anyone, her truth was that her parents had died, that still she had “been left.”