Shoebox of Memories -- Reflections on Hierarchies of Grief, Decades after Losing a Classmate to Suicide: Interview with Candace Opper | Episode 104

What do we mean by “disenfranchised grief.” It’s when your experience of grief is different than the general cultural attitudes about “justified” pain regarding death and loss or “acceptable” mourning practices. Being out of “the norm” in your grief experience often tend to exacerbate the pain as people can feel very alone.

In this conversation, Candace Opper talks about her experience losing a childhood acquaintance to suicide and how this event stayed with her for decades.

About Candace Opper

Suicide Prevention, Mental Health, Keynote Speaker, Depression, resilience, burnout, grief, psychological safety, training, strategy

Candace Jane Opper is a writer, a mother, and a visual artist. She is the author of Certain and Impossible Events, an investigative memoir about the lasting impact of adolescent suicide, selected by Cheryl Strayed for the Kore Press Memoir Award. Her writing has appeared in Guernica, Longreads, Narratively, Literary Hub, Brevity, Creative Nonfiction, Bright Wall/Dark Room, and Vestoj, among others. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Portland State University and is the recipient of a Creative Nonfiction Fellowship. She grew up in the woods of Southern Connecticut and now lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and son.

 

Show Notes

BOOK “Certain and Impossible Events” on surviving adolescent suicide - https://www.amazon.com/Certain-Impossible-Events-Candace-Opper/dp/1888553936

WEBSITE

https://candacejaneopper.com/

 

SOCIAL

https://twitter.com/candaceopper

https://www.instagram.com/candaceopper/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/candace-opper-00915141/

 

RELATED WRITING

“The Chemistry of an Echo” Guernica Magazine

“My Unhealthy Obsession with My Dead Middle School Crush” Narratively

“The Bridge and the Water” Guernica Magazine

“An Incomplete Catalogue of Our Interactions” Pigeon Pages

 

PRESS

Book review in BOMB Magazine

Heart-Shaped Box, Review in Bookforum

How Adolescent Suicide Shaped Candace Jane Opper And Her Debut Memoir, ‘Certain And Impossible Events,’ Review in The Pittsburgh Current

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