Narrative Healing with Lisa Weinert

I pursued publishing right out of college because I was, and still am, inspired by the power of narrative to transform. ​ In 2002 I began my career in the heart of investigative journalism at The Nation magazine, which was founded by abolitionists and is the oldest weekly magazine in the United States. It was post-9/11 New York, and as the first web intern I got to cover anti-war protests and protests of corporate corruption and help edit the online magazine. I moved on to spend eight and a half years as a publicist and editor at Vintage and Anchor Books, the paperback division of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at what is now Penguin Random House, Inc. There I had the opportunity to build a foundation in publishing by working with the some of the best minds in the industry. I promoted hundreds of award-winning and bestselling authors, including Tavis Smiley, Dani Shapiro, Andrew Weil MD, Kay Redfield Jamison, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Mary Gaitskill. I learned how to weave books into the cultural conversation through publicity campaigns, and I also witnessed the fall of traditional publishing as book review pages and author tours began to disappear. After working at Random House, I moved on to join Jane Friedman’s innovative ebook company Open Road Integrated Media, where I had a front-row seat to the digital revolution in publishing and saw firsthand the dizzying array of new opportunities and challenges that writers faced. ​ I launched Lisa Weinert Consulting (LWC) in 2011 to advocate for and guide writers as they explore the vast new world of publishing in the digital age. My goal is to marry the best practices in traditional publishing with all the new opportunities digital publishing affords while keeping authors at the center of the process. Over the years, I have produced dozens of book projects at every stage of development. I have worked with major publishers like Audible, Library of America and The Feminist Press as well as major authors such as Ethan Nichtern and startup projects like Hearts on Fire, by Jill Iscol, with a foreword by Bill Clinton, and online serial publisher SerialBox. I specialize in narrative nonfiction, personal narrative, wellness, women’s leadership and spirituality. ​ Alongside my publishing career, I became a committed yoga student. In this practice, I experienced subtler forms of storytelling—the stories we hold in our bodies. I first fell in love with yoga when I was struggling with acute depression in college. In my first class, I entered a back-bending posture called “wheel” and felt relief and hope for the first time in many months. I was hooked. I completed a 500-hour YogaWorks Teacher Training in 2014 and discovered the profound healing power of restorative yoga. I continued to study with Jillian Pransky and received certifications in restorative and therapeutic yoga. Motivated by my healing journey and my dedication to promoting stories, I partnered with the Kripalu to create the debut annual Narrative Medicine Program in 2016. ​ Whether I’m producing a book project or teaching a yoga class, I’m inspired to empower people to nurture their voices. There is valuable, lifesaving medicine in our stories that can heal us personally and as a society.