110: MEMOIRIST: Rebekah Taussig on sitting pretty, disability, the motherhood transition and badass boots

Memoir Body, Healing Story with Janelle Hardy

It’s episode #110 and I’m chatting with memoirist Rebekah Taussig, a Kansas City writer and educator with her doctorate in Creative Nonfiction and Disability Studies.

I found Rebekah in my usual way, by clicking interesting links. One click led to another, and I landed on her marvelous Instagram account, Sitting Pretty. She’d just published her memoir of the same name, and had made a post about a sticker giveaway. I signed up and received some lovely stickers at my address in northern Canada, and then, a year later, walking into a bookstore, I saw her book on the shelf. I bought it, devoured it, and, on the off-change she might be interested in a podcast conversation, e-mailed to invite her on.

Obviously, she said yes, and here we are! So, a little more about her…

Rebekah lives with her fussy family of tenderhearted snugglers.

She’s spent most of her life immersed in the world of writing and reading – as a student, teacher, and human – because she believes that the words we use and the stories we tell matter.

She grew up writing angsty poems in a fat notebook, songs on her guitar, and slip-stream fiction with protagonists who were always rebelling against the system.

What started as instinct evolved into an academic study and eventually became a way of seeing the world. She’s always looking for the powerful connection between the cultural narratives we tell and the world we live in, from physical spaces and economic opportunities to social roles and interpersonal relationships.

She earned a PhD in Creative Nonfiction and Disability Studies from the University of Kansas, and she writes personal essays that participate in the stories being told about disability.

She also runs an Instagram account, @sitting_pretty, where she regularly crafts “mini-memoirs” that explore what it means to live in my particular (disabled, female) body.

Her memoir in essays, Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body is out now with HarperOne.

The book is born from the most personal place, swaddled in academic knowledge, and shaped by the voice she’s been honing online for years. It provides a nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most.

It was so lovely to connect with Rebekah, and I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy listening in.

Website: www.rebekahtaussig.com

Instagram: @sitting_pretty