Critically acclaimed memoirist, Melissa Bond, spoke to me about her dark night of the soul, crowd-funding her lauded memoir, and the paperback release of BLOOD ORANGE NIGHT: A Memoir of Insomnia, Motherhood, and Benzos.
Melissa Bond is a narrative journalist, editor, award-winning poet, and speaker/performer whose breakout debut memoir, Blood Orange Night, is a Barnes & Noble non-fiction book of the month, and was selected by both The New York Times as one of the Best Audiobooks of 2022.
Publishers Weekly (in a Starred Review) said of the book, “In this raw and captivating debut, journalist Bond chronicles her volatile descent into a benzodiazepine addiction …. Bond’s narrative casts a burning light onto the hazards of overprescribing and the threat it poses to vulnerable people. This cautionary tale stuns.”
Melissa Bond blogged and became a regular contributor for Mad in America in the years of her dependence on benzodiazepines. She is a respected speaker and writer on the perils of over-prescribing benzodiazepines and has been featured on podcasts including The New York Times Book Review, and others.
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In this file Melissa Bond and I discussed:
- Her guerilla street poet/poverty phase and hosting National Poetry Slams
- Why she never imagined writing a memoir
- How she Kickstarted her hit book in just three days
- The transformative process of finding gems in the rubble of difficult times
- Her process, meditation practice, and “sitting beyond oneself”
- How to quiet the gnome of self-doubt
- And a lot more!
Show Notes:
- melissaabond.com
- Blood Orange Night: A Memoir of Insomnia, Motherhood, and Benzos By Melissa Bond (Amazon)
- Melissa Bond on Instagram
- Kelton Reid on Twitter
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