Take the Giveaway4Good Challenge

By Lisa Ellison

During my parents’ divorce, I lived with my grandmother, a gifted raconteur with impeccable timing and skillful intonation. Listening to her made me want to become a storyteller. Most of her tales were set during her childhood in the Bronx and involved the Yankees, her mother’s mysterious illness, or her family’s elaborate Italian dinners.

One day, she told me about a dollhouse she’d wanted for her sixth Christmas. At sixty-one, she could still recall the number of rooms and the color of the kitchen’s porcelain plates. With each detail, she transformed into the little girl who pleaded for her one and only Christmas wish.

But the only gifts under that year’s Christmas tree were underwear and socks.

After a long pause, she swallowed hard then patted my hand. “That day, I learned an important lesson. If you never want anything, you’ll never be disappointed.”

A lifetime of heartache solidified that lesson.

Her mother’s tragic death.
A shotgun wedding after an unplanned pregnancy.
An unhappy marriage.
A suicide attempt.
Mysterious health problems.
Agoraphobia.

At ten, I absorbed her lesson.

It took several decades to unlearn it.

Since March, I’ve thought a lot about her story and how it’s hard to want anything when problems keep dropping upon us.

A global pandemic.
Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.
Economic turmoil.
Increasing inequity.
Tragic deaths.
Health crises.
Election drama.
More COVID cases.

And yet, even now, I have desires.

I want to finish the memoir about my brother’s suicide.

I want to send it to agents.

I want to believe this story will help someone.

When grief overpowers me during the revision process or I fear my memoir no longer matters, I turn to Brevity for inspiration.

While my teacup steams beside me, I read courageous posts about Chelsey Drysdale’s courage in the face of rejection, Amy Grier’s determination to finish her memoir, and Shiv Dutta’s late-life publishing success.

Brevity shows me that I’m part of a creative family whose wishes are sacred.

In November, I met with several members of this creative family who sounded as broken-hearted as my grandmother. Many talked of shrinking their dreams. I felt like doing this too.

During my master’s in counseling, my advisor once said, “We can’t change the past, but we can change the story we tell about it.” That’s what counselors help people do.

It’s also the gift of creative nonfiction.

As we entered the final month of this year, I wanted to do something that proved there’s more than one story we can tell about 2020.

I created my #Giveaway4Good Challenge to help writers connect with something greater than themselves. Each week’s challenge is designed to boost resilience and encourage literary citizenship. Knowing this work benefits my creative family gives me the strength to work on the hardest parts of my memoir.  

My Week Three Challenge gives you an opportunity to support organizations like Brevity that encourage us to courageously turn our difficult experiences into art.

Here are the details for this week’s challenge:

1. Support any literary organization with a monetary donation or social media share, and I’ll give you one ticket for this week’s drawing. I’m giving additional tickets for support to Hippocampus Literary Magazine, James River Writers, and Creative Nonfiction. For more details check out my website.
2. Support Brevity by doing one of the following and I’ll give you two tickets for this week’s drawing:
   1. Subscribe to Brevity’s blog (If you’re reading online, the subscribe button is in the sidebar on the right)
   2. Read and share any Brevity blog post on social media
   3. Follow Brevity on Instagram @Brevitymag
3. Make a ten-dollar donation to Brevity or send a copy of The Best of Brevity to a writer, teacher, or friend and I’ll give you four tickets for this week’s drawing.

The more you do, the more tickets you’ll earn. 

This week’s prize is a set of author-signed books published in 2020 and a spot in Jane Friedman’s Query Master Class. 

You’ll also be entered in my grand-prize drawing for a one-hour coaching session with me (includes a 10-page manuscript review) PLUS a spot in Jane Friedman’s course How to Write a Book Proposal.

To participate in this challenge, send an email to lisa.cooper.ellison@gmail.com. Please include the name of the organization and your donation amount or a screenshot of your social media posts.

If loneliness, heartache or overwhelm make you question your dreams, brew a hot beverage, and scroll through Brevity. Let the words of your brilliant, courageous writing family remind you to that your stories are your gift to the world.

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Lisa Ellison is an editor, writing coach, and speaker with an Ed.S in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Her life story and essays have appeared on NPR’s With Good Reason and in Hippocampus Literary Magazine, Kenyon Review Online, and The Guardian, among others. She is currently working on a memoir about how, after her brother’s suicide, a chance meeting during a heavy metal tour ultimately saved her life. Follow her on Twitter @LisaEllisonsPen or Instagram @lisacooperellison.