Exploring The Loneliness Epidemic with Athena Dixon

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Athena Dixon joins the Writing Your Resilience Podcast to discuss the multiple facets of loneliness, how to decide what is for you and what is for the public, and how to create your own definition of success. 

Here are a few questions to ponder as you listen to this episode: How do you define loneliness? How did the pandemic impact the way that you define and experienced it? What does success look like for you? What is one positive association you have with being alone?

Born and raised in Northeast Ohio, Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of The Loneliness Files (Tin House 2023) and The Incredible Shrinking Woman (Split/Lip Press 2020). Her work is also included in the anthology The Breakbeat Poets Vol.2: Black Girl Magic and her craft work appears in Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction. Athena is an alumni of V.O.N.A., Callaloo, and Tin House and has received a prose fellowship from The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and a Second Book Residency from Tin House.

Episode Highlights: 

• 4:00 The problem of loneliness
• 8:00 Establishing intimacy between writer and reader
• 11:00 The skills of being honest
• 16:00 Finding the vessel for your story 
• 20:00 Defining success for yourself 
• 27:00 Digital loneliness 
• 35:49 Intentional isolation 
• 42:00 The relationship between loneliness and hyper-independence 

Essay mentioned during this episode: 

• https://gay.medium.com/the-incredible-shrinking-woman-997f50b9e63b

Connect with Athena 

Website: https://athenadixon.com/

Instagram: the_muse_paper
Twitter/X: AthenaDDixon
Facebook: AthenaDevonDixon

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Produced by Espresso Podcast Production