London Writers' Salon #181: Erica Stern — Writing Hybrid Nonfiction, Genre-Bending Memoir, Blending Research and Story, Finding A Publisher
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Feb 15, 2026 Erica Stern, an essayist and fiction writer whose debut hybrid memoir Frontier blends memoir, research, and a ghost-story thread. She discusses defining hybrid nonfiction and how a ghost strand emerged. She describes making multiple modes cohesive through long revision and reverse outlining. She talks about integrating research intuitively, treating weirdness as an asset, and practical paths to publishing genre-defying work.
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Form Follows Emotional Truth
- Hybrid nonfiction blends genres to reach an emotional truth beyond straight factual narrative.
- Erica Stern discovered the form by following resistance she felt to conventional memoir.
Ghost Thread Began As A Break
- A brief historical fragment she wrote as a break from intense memoir grew into a full Wild West thread.
- That thread eventually required the narrator to become a ghost so the story could continue after death.
Reverse-Outline To Find The Throughline
- Do reverse-outline after you have a solid draft to clarify what each section is doing.
- Use that outline to tighten focus and create a driving throughline without forcing the structure early.
