From News Article To Best-Selling Memoir with Aspen Matis

Published: Oct. 13, 2015, 3 p.m.

b"Aspen Matis shares how writing about her most traumatic experience for the New York Times Modern Love column led to a book deal and her best selling memoir \\u2013 Girl In The Woods.\\n\\nAspen Matis is the best-selling author of the memoir \\u2013 Girl In The Woods. After being raped on her second night at\\xa0college,\\xa0Aspen Matis dropped out. Trekking into the desert,\\xa0Aspen left her sheltered suburban life behind, searching for a way to heal.\\xa0Inspired by the beauty and turmoil enveloping her on the trail, the author wrote poems, personal accounts, and dispatches from her tent. After moving to New York City, she\\xa0published a popular account\\xa0of her experiences in\\xa0The New York Times\\u2019\\xa0Modern Love column\\xa0to outstanding praise, which led to this memoir. She now lives in Greenwich Village, where she\\u2019s finishing her degree at The New School and working on her next novel.\\xa0\\n\\nCrystal-lee Quibell is the host of Literary Speaking, a weekly podcast dedicated to helping writers learn from best-selling authors, literary agents, and publishers. Founder of The Magical Writers Group, a private teaching forum for writers specifically focused on memoir. She is a champion for the written word, student of publishing and an obsessive book collector with a serious case of wanderlust. A self-described mermaid and witchy woman for life, she believes that life is better with books, chocolate, and the occasional cheese board. Her upcoming essay is to be featured in the forthcoming book, The Magic Of Memoir: Inspiration for the Writer's Journey."