The Stories Only You Can Tell (aka “SOYCATs”)
An All-Day Memoir and Personal Essay Workshop

Wednesday, august 12, 2026 - livestream - 7:30 am PT to 4 pm pt

a ‘weekday workday’ for narrative nonfiction

Participate, Ask questions, pitch ideas, get feedback, tell your story

Enrollment: $299

Erin Hosier, literary Agent

I love when an agent represents people I personally know, love and respect, and Erin Hosier works with a bunch of my favorite humans—including David Browne, Nancy Balbirer and OG Upodder Margaret Wappler. Also, I can usually tell a great agent by how quickly and warmly they respond to an invitation, and Erin was unbelievably quick and friendly. A very good sign.

Erin has been an agent at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner since 2007, representing nonfiction and select literary fiction. She has a particular interest in memoir, secret histories, music biography, pop culture, science, humor, cultural criticism and untold stories of all kinds. She also knows what it’s like to sit on the other side of the desk: she wrote the memoir Don’t Let Me Down, coauthored drummer Patty Schemel’s Hit So Hard, and cohosts and produces the podcast Tell Me About Your Father. So she can talk about what agents want, what writers go through and what makes a personal story feel like a book.

Nancy E. Wolff, attorney

I wanted a brilliant publishing lawyer for this day, so I contacted one of the best. Nancy E. Wolff is a partner at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard, a leading intellectual-property, media and entertainment law firm. She represents writers, artists, publishers and other creative people in matters involving publishing, copyright, privacy, libel, licensing and the use of photographs and other protected material. She has also spoken with the Authors Guild and other organizations about the particular legal and ethical complications of memoir.

For essayists and memoir writers, we’ll get into things like: Can I name this person? Can I quote that email? What if my sister remembers everything differently? Can I use that photograph? Is changing a name enough? Nancy will help us understand where the true risks lie, what precautions actually matter and when a manuscript needs professional review. She can also answer general questions about rights, contracts and permissions. Ideally, we’ll leave better informed and still willing to write the honest parts.

Kerry Cohen, memoir doula

Kerry Cohen lives and breathes memoir. She has written several of her own, including Loose Girl and Lush, and she is the author of The Truth of Memoir, a smart, psychologically astute guide to writing honestly about yourself and everyone unfortunate enough to have crossed your path. And for 2027: Truth Be Told: Writing Memoir That Matters.

No doubt we’ll get in deep: How do you reveal long-guarded secrets? How do you write about parents, children, friends, spouses and exes without flattening them into villains (or destroying the relationship entirely)?

She also runs memoir labs, mentors writers and works as what she calls a memoir doula, helping people bring difficult stories into the world. I told you: this woman knows memoir.

Rheana Murray, Newsweek

Many of you already know and adore Rheana Murray as the queen of the smart, accessible personal essay. She edited first-person work at NBC and the Today site and now oversees Newsweek’s My Turn column. She has never spoken at Upod because she doesn’t do weekend events. Lucky us: we’re meeting on a Wednesday.

Rheana has an unusually clear eye for personal stories that are moving, timely and immediately understandable to a broad audience. We’ll get to ask what she wants now, what makes an idea feel fresh rather than familiar, and why some perfectly competent essays never quite catch fire. We can pitch a few ideas, talk about how much of an essay needs to be written before approaching an editor, and ask where else writers might take pieces that aren’t right for her. Basically, we get direct access to someone who has spent years figuring out which first-person stories people will stop and read and how writers can make their own work impossible to resist!!

Allison devereaux, Agent

As a literary agent at Trellis Literary Management, Allison Devereaux represents what she calls “outward-facing memoir”: personal stories that illuminate something larger about the world. That immediately made me want her for this day. She leads the agency’s nonfiction program and represents investigative journalism, cultural and social history, science and medicine, big-idea books and other serious nonfiction. Her clients have become New York Times bestsellers, appeared on best-of-the-year lists from The New Yorker, The Atlantic and NPR, and received some of the country’s leading literary prizes and fellowships.

As for our session…Allison can help answer the question that determines whether many personal stories become publishable books: What is this about beyond me, me, me? She’ll talk about how memoir gains scope through reporting, history, culture, science and ideas; what gives a life story enough shape and momentum to sustain a book; and how writers can preserve intimacy while creating stakes for complete strangers.

David Hochman, Your Host

David Hochman is an award-winning journalist, author and founder of Upod, which supports freelance writers to pitch better, think bigger and get the help they need from the most influential people in media.

He loves essays and memoir and is on a mission to get 1,000 Upodders to publish their works of narrative nonfiction by 2027. He’s up to 832, so he’s pretty sure we’re going to get there. [Also, please do not fact-check that number, but it definitely feels right.]

Mark Jannot, Essays editor

I asked Mark Jannot to join us because I’m sorta enthralled by Now Voyager, the new—yes, new—print (yes, print) magazine he’s assigning and editing for. It’s also online. The bimonthly is full of ambitious longform journalism, including first-person narratives and international stories, and I want to hear what they’re looking for and why anyone launches a gorgeous new paper magazine right now.

But I’ve also known Mark forever, and he’s one of the most respected editorial minds in narrative nonfiction. He was longtime editor-in-chief of Popular Science and Audubon, a story editor at The New York Times Magazine, and held senior roles at National Geographic and Men’s Journal. He’s spent his career helping writers turn deeply reported, complicated material into stories people want to read and savor. He has also served as president of the American Society of Magazine Editors and contributed to The Best American Magazine Writing. He now lives in Portugal.

Brooke warner, Author

Brooke Warner understands memoir from nearly every angle: craft, structure, proposals, platform, marketing and the bewildering process of getting a book into the world. She is the publisher of She Writes Press and COO of its parent company, The Stable Book Group. Before that, she was an executive editor at Seal Press. She has spent more than 25 years in publishing and has guided hundreds of authors from manuscript to finished book.

She is also a longtime memoir coach and the author or coauthor of books including How to Sell Your Memoir, Breaking Ground on Your Memoir and The Magic of Memoir. Brooke can explain why beautifully written memoirs sometimes struggle to find traditional publishers, what makes a personal story substantial enough and how writers can evaluate traditional, hybrid and independent routes without assuming there is one correct path. She’s really nice and she’s great at giving supportive feedback, so get ready to share your elevator pitch without worrying that you’ll be shot down.

UPOD SCHOLARS PROGRAM
Thanks to the generous contributions of the Upod writers community, several free spots are available at Upod Academy workshops for writers and journalists who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color. Apply For A Scholarship