Writing Grief Without Cliché: Eirinie Carson on Friendship, Loss, and The Dead Are Gods

Writing Your Resilience: Building Resilience, Embracing Trauma and Healing Through Writing

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Have you ever wondered what it really means to grieve a friend—someone dazzling, flawed, and deeply loved? Or how laughter, silence, and even text messages can become part of the story we tell about those we’ve lost?

In today’s episode of Writing Your Resilience, I talk with writer Eirinie Carson about her breathtaking debut memoir The Dead Are Gods and her forthcoming novel Bloodfire, Baby. Together, we explore how writing can both preserve and transform our grief, why it’s so important to show loved ones in their full humanity, and what it means to let go of a story that once felt like holding on to the person themselves. Plus, Eirinie will share one of the most surprising things she learned about how we structure a book and the conversations it encourages as well as what gets silenced.

Episode Highlights

• 2:50: The Power of Capturing Your Memories
• 4:15: Writing for an Audience
• 8:30: Holding Space for Your Experiences
• 11:26: The Challenges of Releasing a Grief Memoir
• 21:00: The Relationship Between Laughter and Grief
• 25:00: How Your Book’s Structure Impacts the Way You Market It

Resources for this Episode:

• Preorder Bloodfire, Baby
• Skunk Anansie

Eirinie’s Bio: Eirinie Carson is a Black British writer living in California. She is a mother of two children and sits on the board of The Writers Grotto in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in LitHub, Mother Magazine, The Notre Dame Review, Mortal Mag, Electric Literature, The Sonora Review and others. She was the NEA Distinguished Fellow at the Hambidge Center, and she and her work have been supported by Mesa Refuge, Hedgebrook and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Eirinie's first book, The Dead Are Gods (Melville House, 2023), was critically acclaimed by Oprah Daily, Nylon Magazine, Shondaland and The Washington Post as well as winning a Zibby Award. It was also named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2023.

Connect with Eirinie:

Website: www.eiriniecarson.com

Instagram: @eirinieeee

Bluesky: @eirinieee.bsky.social

Tiktok: @eirinieeee

Connect with your host, Lisa:
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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production