Freelance Writing Direct with Estelle: Conversations with authors, journalists, agents, novelists, memoirists, niche writers, publishers, writing teachers, assigning editors and media experts. #124 Essays on Loneliness: Tethering An Isolated Writer To A Disconnected World Featuring Athena Dixon
Athena Dixon is the author of essay collections The Incredible Shrinking Woman and The Loneliness Files and her work appears in publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Shenandoah, Grub Street, Narratively, and Lit Hub among others. She is a Consulting Editor for Fourth Genre and the Nonfiction/Hybrid Editor for Split/Lip Press.
In this episode:
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How the Pandemic pushed Athena into writing essays [3:26]
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The extreme loneliness epidemic in our country [5:35]
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How Athena explored loneliness in throughlines of grief, the concept of a "split self", and journals [7:57]
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Why she used a multi-tiered braided essay in the collection [10:15]
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How she used the vessel of the body to play with the fear of the heart [11:09]
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The influence of her fanfiction fixation on Athena's writing and ability to daydream a new reality [14:11]
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Her use of intention and ritual as a roadmap for bringing romance to fruition [16:51]
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Athena's editorial work with Fourth Genre and Split Lip Press [24:44]
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Why Athena now values her loneliness and moments of isolation as a tool in her tool kit [25:47]
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Advice for identifying a strong throughline in your essay collection [32:45]
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Keys to figuring out the right format for your stories, when deciding between memoir or a memoir in essays [35:42]
Buy The Loneliness Files on Estelle's Bookshop
Connect with Athena
Website:
https://www.instagram.com/the_muse_paper/?hl=en
TikTok
https://tiktok.com/@AthenaDIxon
BlueSky
https://bsky.app/profile/athenadixon.bsky.social
Split Lip Press
https://www.splitlippress.com/
Fourth Genre Magazine
Episode mentioned with Jeannine Ouellette
#103 Launching into New Dimensions with Embodied Writing
https://estelleserasmus.com/103-launching-into-new-dimensions-with-embodied-writing/
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