EMILY BROWN ON WRITING MOMENTUM, FAMILY, AND THE SEARCH FOR BELONGING - VORAKA

Emily Brown is a Canadian author whose debut memoir Momentum explores themes of belonging, identity, emotional healing, and family relationships. Drawing from experiences across Beverly Hills, Eastern Europe, San Francisco, and Canada, Brown writes with honesty and emotional depth about the moments that shaped her life and worldview. Her work reflects on family, activism, migration, motherhood, and the lifelong process of understanding oneself. Through Momentum, she offers readers a thoughtful and deeply human story about resilience, self-discovery, and finding peace within the complexities of the past.

AUTHOR EMILY BROWN

Some books stay with you because of their story. Others stay because of how honestly they are told. Emily Brown’s memoir Momentum feels deeply personal from the very first page, inviting readers into a reflective journey through family, identity, emotional healing, and the search for belonging.

Rather than presenting life through polished memories or easy answers, Brown writes with honesty and emotional clarity. Her memoir moves through different stages of her life, from childhood in Beverly Hills to adulthood in Canada, while exploring the emotional impact of family silence, fractured relationships, and the quiet longing to feel understood.

The idea for Momentum began during a difficult period in Brown’s life. While attending her Uncle Bib’s memorial, she realized her father was beginning to experience Alzheimer’s disease, making her aware that time was running out to ask questions about her family history and childhood. At the same time, she was emotionally exhausted from a complicated relationship with her mother that had followed her for much of her life.

That realization became the emotional starting point for the memoir. Brown reflects openly on growing up in Beverly Hills, where appearances often hid emotional distance and unresolved pain behind closed doors. Through the memoir, she revisits family tensions, divorce, long-buried emotions, and the experiences that quietly shaped her adulthood.

MOMENTUM BY EMILY BROWN | AVAILABLE ON AMAZON | WWW.EMILY-BROWN.COM

What makes Momentum compelling is the way Brown allows the story to unfold naturally. The writing feels thoughtful and deeply human, never overly dramatic or forced. Instead, the memoir captures the uncertainty and emotional complexity that come with trying to understand the past while continuing to move forward.

The memoir also explores the many experiences that shaped Brown’s worldview over the years. After studying economics at UC Berkeley, she became involved in feminist activism in San Francisco before later spending time in Hungary during the final years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. These experiences, along with marriage, motherhood, migration, and career changes, all became part of her evolving understanding of identity and belonging.

As Brown revisited her memories while writing Momentum, she described feeling an overwhelming sense of relief as buried stories and emotions finally surfaced. The memoir ultimately becomes not only a reflection on family, but also a story about emotional resilience, self-awareness, and learning to live alongside unanswered questions.

The book has already received strong praise from literary reviewers. Kirkus Reviews described it as “a deeply personal story of a quest for belonging,” while The International Review of Books called it “a luminous, courageous memoir of belonging, resilience, and deeply transformative self-discovery.” With Momentum, Emily Brown offers readers a memoir that feels intimate, reflective, and emotionally honest, a story that many readers will quietly see themselves in.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR EMILY BROWN

Q. What first pushed you to start writing Momentum, and why then?

Emily: At my Uncle Bib's memorial I realized my father had early-stage Alzheimer's and if I wanted to ask him about his marriage to my mom and my childhood I had to talk to him soon. I was also emotionally exhausted from my difficult relationship with my mother, which started early and continued into my adulthood and her old age.

Q. How did your early life in Beverly Hills shape the story you tell in the book?

Emily: I came to realize that no matter how beautiful the physical surroundings are, how beautiful one can make themselves look or how much wealth one possesses, once the front door is closed, people’s emotional lives may not match up to that beauty.

Q. What was the emotional process like as you revisited your past while writing?

Emily: As long as I can remember, I lived with an undercurrent of unhappiness that pulsed through me, despite my creating a comfortable and relatively happy life. Once I started writing many of the buried stories and emotions came forward and as I started to make sense of my life I had a sense of overwhelming relief.

Q. How did your experience in activism influence your outlook and your storytelling?

Emily: Working intensely with strong women leaders and other activists who were intellectually and administratively talented and who spoke plainly and forcefully with little rhetoric and bluster, as well as engaging with people from all different walks of life in a joint effort to bring about a more socially just and equal world made me the person I am today.

Q. Did your background in economics and political economy change the way you reflect on your life?

Emily: Learning about different economic systems alerted me to the problems of capitalism and motivated my interest in activism. It sparked my interest in socialist economics. Traveling widely and living in Hungary made me aware of the shortcomings of socialism. It made me aware of the complexity for economic systems to balance economic efficiency and sustain social equality.

Q. What stayed with you most from your time in Eastern Europe during such a pivotal period?

Emily: The natural and architectural beauty of the countries but also the austerity and contradictions under which people lived. While socialism attempted to create strong social equality, people struggled economically and emotionally from limited opportunities. It made me aware of the personal freedoms available in Western countries that were envied by those living in socialist countries at that time.

Q. When did you realize this was more than personal writing and something you wanted to share?

Emily: After my first draft, I realized I had a voice and wanted to be heard. I didn’t want to just put the manuscript in a drawer and call it a day. As I shared it with friends and family, I appreciated how it sparked meaningful conversations about meaning and belonging, and that motivated me to share it more widely.

Q. How did taking writing classes help you refine your voice and structure the memoir?

Emily: Since I had no creative writing experience, taking classes played a critical part in learning to be a writer. Classes included how to “show, don’t tell”, creating a scene and writing dialogue, developing and adhering to a structure, and refining my voice. But above all, I was intent on keeping the story honest, focused and with purposeful emotion.

Q. What was the most challenging part of revising the manuscript over the years?

Emily: Since my first draft was an exercise in self-discovery, creating a focused story line was challenging. I had to cut extensively with subsequent drafts. At times it was difficult to maintain honesty and transparency without becoming self-involved and indulgent. It was difficult to not include more about my husband and son who helped make me who I am today.

Q. What do you hope readers feel or take away after finishing Momentum?

Emily: Although families may fall short of our hopes for feeling loved and connected, acknowledge the feelings of loss, don’t let them define you. The search for belonging and identity is a process of trial and error and ultimately of change; we don’t always make the right decisions and aren’t assured of the outcomes.

Q. How did you approach being honest while still protecting parts of your personal life?

Emily: Much of my story is about the emotional distancing by my parents and the significant negative impact it had on me. I have tried not to recreate this in my life, and I didn’t want to create this with my reader. It also focuses on experiences from my past and so don’t feel afraid to speak about them openly now.

Q. What would you say to someone who feels the urge to write but doesn’t know where to begin?

Emily: Start writing! Put your emotions and feelings on the page. Writing is above all, a process of self-discovery. Don’t worry about creating beautiful sentences, scenes, dialogue or structure. All that comes later.

Q. How do you feel about being in Voraka Magazine, and what does this recognition mean to you?

Emily: Voraka’s celebration of fashion, lifestyle and literary perspectives matches up with my interest in international, cross-cultural and diverse experiences. I am pleased and grateful to have been asked to contribute to the magazine and that Voraka is prepared to include a debut author. I am hopeful that my comments and experiences will resonate with readers and thankful for this opportunity.