Leslie Johansen Nack with Ronit Plank — 'Nineteen'

Third Place Books welcomes writer Leslie Johansen Nack to our Ravenna store for a conversation about her new memoir, . Starting in the mid-1970s where her previous memoir, leaves off, Nineteen explores the consequences of childhood trauma while also retaining and celebrating hope. Leslie will be joined in conversation by memoirist Ronit Plank, author of the Substack Let’s Talk Memoir.

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For fans of Stephanie Thornton-Plymale's American Daughter and Cea Sunrise Person’s North of Normal comes Leslie Johansen Nack’s emotional follow-up memoir about her battle with addiction following a traumatic childhood—and her inspiring journey toward healing and happiness.
In the mid-1970s, Leslie Nack’s family returned from sailing to French Polynesia and began the integration process into American life again, which included being tossed back and forth between an alcoholic, mentally ill mother and an abusive, overbearing father.
To find love and acceptance, Leslie chases a myth that throws her into the path of nefarious older men, where she eventually falls into drug and alcohol addiction. Her father dies in his plane in the jungles of Mexico when Leslie is nineteen, but his abuse lingers in her psyche. She spirals, her only solace her next fix—until, somehow, she finds the grace, despite her abjectly dysfunctional family background, to believe in her worth. This newfound self-love changes everything for her, and finally she is able to find her way to sobriety and recovery.
Raw and intense but ultimately hopeful, this sequel to the popular memoir Fourteen tells the rest of Nack’s turbulent—and incredible—story.

Leslie Johansen Nack is the author of two award-winning books: her debut memoir, Fourteen, and her historical novel, The Blue Butterfly. Her forthcoming sequel, Nineteen: A Daughter’s Memoir of Reckoning and Recovery, concludes her raw and deeply personal story, chronicling her path to sobriety and a renewed sense of hope. Nack graduated from UCLA with a degree in English literature and overcame past traumas to raise two children in a healthy, loving home. She is a member of NAMW, the Historical Novel Society, and the PNWA. She lives outside Seattle with her husband. More information at www.lesliejohansennack.com.

Ronit Plank is a writer, teacher, and editor whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, The New York Times, and elsewhere, earning Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Kirkus Reviews calls her debut memoir When She Comes Back, “An intimate, intuitive, emotionally vivid family account that finds hope in reconciliation". About the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation, When She Comes Back earned Finalist in the Housatonic Awards and was a Book Riot Best True Crime Book of 2021. Her short story collection Home is a Made-Up Place won Hidden River Arts’ Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories. Ronit teaches memoir writing for the University of Washington’s Continuum Program and other writing programs based in the U.S. and abroad, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and hosts the podcast Let’s Talk Memoir featuring interviews with memoirists about their creative process and writing life. Find her at ronitplank.com, on Substack at Let’s Talk Memoir, and across social media @RonitPlank.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events.

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