"Growing a Spiritual Pair": A Conversation
Bowen Dwelle and Michael Mohr on Women, Men, Memoir, Writing, Mothers, and More
Bowen and I got together for a deep and wide-ranging conversation that covered a number of topics including how our own writing has changed us, patriarchy and personal responsibility, the psychosexual realm between mothers and sons, love, commitment and addiction, women who inspire and support us, and, of course, what we’re working on next.
If you’re a writer who values authentic, no B.S., honest, vulnerable conversations, we think you’ll get a lot out of this discussion.
Following the interview are links to some of our writing, some other writers of memoir on Substack, further reading on memoir, and some questions for you. We’d love to hear from you!
Listen to writers Michael Mohr and Bowen Dwelle discussing women, men, mothers, memoir writing, honesty and vulnerability, Carl Jung and more. Catch the chat for free HERE on Bowen’s stack.
Bowen Dwelle is the author behind the stack AN ORDINARY DISASTER
This is an excellent conversation, thank you Bowen & Michael. You both have fantastic interview skills.
I appreciated Michael's comment that, as a culture, we seem to have lost the nuance of conversation or dialog. That, sadly, seems to be a vast understatement. Hopefully, places like Substack and conversations such as these will begin to restore the balance.
I fully agree with both of your take on personal responsibility and enjoyed this part of the discussion. For some reason the word robust keeps coming into my mind about it, I guess that's to say that you both dug into that issue fully. I guess it was easy for me to go along for the ride as I was in full agreement!
I met a little resistance in the discussion of mothers though. I am a Mom to two young men so was curious where you guys were going to go with the discussion. I think Jung's take on the whole thing needs to be looked at with a very wide lens. That being said, I am not a Jungian scholar so my knowledge of his full take on Moms and sons is only rudimentary. I found the discussion interesting while at the same time thinking 'holy shit and no damn way!'
Two other points that hit home were when you, Michael, talked about writing as externalizing the internal. Love that, and same for when Bowen talked about responding to the work, not the person, because the work is the soul. Bravo! That is something I need to bear in mind. I am a not-yet-reformed people pleaser so sometimes catch myself responding to the person as much as the work. I am going to work on that and question myself in the moment.
Well done on nailing some amazing topics.