Rich Benjamin on Writing From Before You Were Born

Memoir Nation: Weekly Inspiration for Writers is an extension of the Memoir Nation community hosted by Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner, two friends and colleagues who bring a community-minded sensibility to the writing journey. Originally launched as Write-minded in 2018, this is a weekly writing podcast that focuses on memoir and personal writing, as well as industry trends and tips and resources for writers and authors.

How do you get into a story that centers events you don’t remember because you weren’t alive to witness them? That’s what we’re covering today in an episode that reaches into considerations of intergenerational trauma, and how even what’s not said gets transmitted from one generation to the next. Author Rich Benjamin shares with us the story of his family’s tumultuous past in Haiti, and its impact on his grandfather, who never knew, and his mother, who chose silence over disclosure. Rich speaks about research, about how it can be easier to write “third-hand” about traumas you didn’t live through, and how doing the work to uncover stories like these can break the cycles of trauma.

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Rich Benjamin is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and memoirist whose work investigates political, social, and economic power through deeply researched storytelling. Rich is the author of the memoir, Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History, and Searching for Whitopia, a groundbreaking immersive study that presciently examined the rise of white anxiety and nationalism in the United States. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and other major publications, and he is a frequent commentator on NPR, MSNBC, and CNN. His memoir was just shortlisted for the 2026 J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project Awards.