Join us for a discussion with Jocelyn Jane Cox, Melissa Fraterrigo, and Anna Rollins, three memoirists who write about perfectionism and perception. Though performance anxiety has the potential to be crippling, these three authors argue that, with the right mindset, it can be channeled into fuel to help writers put forth their best work on the page, energizing the writing and publishing process. 

Books, once published, are relinquished to the world, out of an author’s hands and into the hands of others. Despite our neuroticism, we cannot control the landing, the handling, and the reception of our words. In this panel, we will engage with questions such as, how do recovering perfectionists handle the chaos involved in publishing the personal for a broad audience? What sort of mantras do we tell ourselves? What underlying beliefs have we worked to unpack? How can we care for ourselves in this vulnerable process while also discovering our strengths? We will share what we’ve learned in the process of publishing memoir so that others may have the courage to brave the mess involved in “putting yourself out there.”