Author Spotlight: A Conversation with Gila Pfeffer

In Her Words

This week, join Jess in conversation with Gila Pfeffer. Pfeffer is a fifteen year breast cancer previvor, survivor and prevention advocate. She is the author of the reluctantly inspirational memoir Nearly Departed: Adventures In Loss, Cancer, and Other Inconveniences. Her work includes the widely shared McSweeney’s piece “An Open Letter to Tiffany & Co. About Their Advertising Campaign for the Ring That Helps Women Remember They Survived Cancer.” She has also written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Today.com, Oprah Daily and more. Her “Feel It on the First” campaign uses tongue-in-cheek photo and video reminders to prioritize breast health and has directly led to earlier diagnoses and treatment for some very grateful women. She splits her time between New York City and London.

In this episode, we hear about Gila's breast cancer survival story, memoir as a form of activism, memoir writing as a compulsion and how writers, like Gila and Jess, feel an absolute NEED to get their story out. Gila shares her experience working with a traditional publishing house and the immense value in finding the right agent who understands the story you want to tell.

This podcast is hosted by Jessica Buchanan, a NYT Bestselling author, speaker, survivor and founder of Soul Speak Press. Soul Speak Press is a boutique non-traditional publishing company focused on publishing stories from women who have been through something, now they know something, and can teach us something.

Learn more about Jessica's first book: Impossible Odds: The Kidnapping of Jessica Buchanan and Her Dramatic Rescue by SEAL Team Six

Learn more about the Deserts to Mountaintops Anthologies. If you're interested in hearing interviews with our Soul Speak Press authors, check out the Deserts to Mountaintops Podcast.