Searching for home. Seattle author publishes first book of short stories

Seattle author Ronit Plank is working out her life through fiction.

Plank is known as a memoirist. She hosts a podcast called “Let’s Talk Memoir," and her first book, "When She Comes Back," documented her relationship with her mother, who left Plank as a child to join a cult.

This week, Plank is releasing her first book of short stories, "Home is a Made Up Place."

While the book is fiction, Plank's work was inspired and driven by real events in her past, including being parented by a single father, moving from place to place, and raising her siblings.

She was drawn to fiction as a way to re-examine her life.

"You could really work on the stuff that was happening for you emotionally and psychologically," Plank said. "At least for me, it's deeply based on what I was ruminating about."

The stories in the collection sit at an intersection of fabricated characters and plots and the true life Plank lived.

Through the entire book, Plank examines the idea of home. Growing up, Plank didn't feel like she had a comfortable home and this book is an exploration of the search for that place to reside, along with the idea that home can be wherever you go.

"The idea that we make home where we go, and with the people that we are close to and the sense of coziness or safeness you can find in the people that are your chosen family," Plank said.

Ronit Plank will be at University Bookstore on Thursday, March 9, and Third Place Books Ravenna on Tuesday, April 4.