Today I am excited to introduce you to author Mike Panasitti.

Mike was a student in my life writing course that I delivered for ISPS-US (International Society for Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis) where he was working on short pieces of autobiographically informed work.

Born in East Los Angeles in 1969, he is a graduate of UC Berkeley and a former patient of California's Department of State Hospitals. From 2015 to 2018 he was a prisoner at New Folsom, a maximum security prison near Sacramento. Mike is now an exhibiting artist, as well as a poet and prose writer whose publishing credits include poems in Matter, creative non-fiction in WALL Literary Journal, and over 40 short stories posted on Reedsy Prompts. He currently lives in the city of Santa Ana and is enrolled as a student of creative writing at Saddleback College.

A slightly longer episode, this interview is about everything from sonnets, magical realism, music, art and how it is possible to go on living after spending almost a third of one's life detained.

This second episode of the DownWrite Mad podcast series features author Catherine Madison. Cathy is not only an editor whom I could not possibly live without, and who knows my work as well as, if not better than I know it myself, but she is also an author in her own right. I met Cathy over a decade ago when I was living in Hollywood, shortly after she had published her book THE WAR CAME HOME WITH HIM: A DAUGHTER'S MEMOIR. Cathy and her book taught me so much about writing, about how important narrative structure is, and about how the research process so often crucial to memoir writing needs to be integrated seamlessly, so the reader learns the facts through the story itself. Most of all, though, Cathy's book showed me how trauma can be transmitted through generations, how what happened to Cathy's father, a POW survivor, affected the entire family. War violence is more catastrophic than we may ever understand. Its effects are mushrooming, especially with the situation in Gaza. Cathy’s lived experience makes her an expert and eloquent voice on the subject of PTSD. I hope you benefit from our conversation and feel free to reach out either on my Substack or my website tanyafrank.com and let me know your reaction.

In this pilot episode of DownWrite Mad, I interview Emma Goude, documentary filmmaker and author of MY BEAUTIFUL PSYCHOSIS. I first met Emma on Twitter, and after reading her memoir, I asked if she would add us (Safely Held Spaces and Soteria House London) to her book tour. As an author who writes in the same genre, I was humbled to read about her lived experience of psychosis, and how it differed from my own journey as a witness to my son's extreme states. Emma captured the ineffable with such grace and her time with me on the show is a testament to this. She is currently making a documentary for the NHS on the subject of Open Dialogue. The practise which began in Finland significantly reduced the high rate of suicide and forced hospitalisation. It is now being trialled here in the UK As for me, your host. My memoir ZIG ZAG BOY: MOTHERHOOD, MADNESS & LETTING GO was published last year, and the response to the work has inspired me to interview other writers and artists who have used the creative process to try to make sense of this thing we call madness, psychosis or altered states. I want to look at how the experience affects us depending upon where we live in the world, where we come from, and how we are treated and perceived whilst on our different journeys through the mental health systems. What helps? What harms? What matters? Do our ancestors pass on their distress to us and how can we work towards stopping the inter-generational cycle of trauma? Next up on Downright Mad is Catherine Madison author of THE WAR CAME HOME WITH HIM, a memoir about her father who was a doctor and a prisoner of war in Korea. We will be talking about the psychological effects of war and how it impacts upon the family and the wider community. Thank you for listening. Please tell your friends about the show and rate and review it. Tanya Frank tanyafrank.com