Member Spotlight: Anne M. Ierardi

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? At a young age, my love of reading opened me to imagine a fuller life, a path I could follow. In my twenties I met writers who journaled and discovered a new world in the voices of women like Anais Nin and Anne Sexton. Years later I discovered the magic of memoir as another way to encounter the lives of people, their struggles and ultimately their triumphs.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? I have always enjoyed several mediums including writing, painting, and music. Music can start my creative juices flowing and I often paint with music playing. While I don’t do that when writing except in between the sitting I have not had to deal too much with writer’s block. Before I wrote my memoir, I wrote a music column for a local paper and before that I wrote sermons to preach on Sunday which doesn’t give you too much time to worry about being blocked.

What is your favorite time to write? Usually, mid-morning. Sometimes in the middle of the night I have to get the words down and sometimes evening when it is quiet.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? Write from the heart. Don’t be afraid to show yourself. Describe what you see, what you feel, invite the reader in so they can participate in the scenes you create just as I have been part of many worlds through the generosity of writers throughout the ages.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The process and craft of writing my memoir Coming Alive tells the story of my awakenings in the midst of feminism, gay liberation, and the role of women in the ministry. Having lived these questions in my search for wholeness I delight in the possibilities of engaging with like-minded people of different generations. Zoom and social media has expanded my reach over the past two years.

Anne Ierardi’s Coming Alive is out now with