I had been at a crossroads in my life the first time I met Renee Zukin. She was working as a brilliant educator in Coralville while my decade-long career as a program manager was going nowhere slowly. It was this dead-end gig that landed me in Zukin’s classroom one afternoon in 2017. It was a lively experience; there may have been what I’ll call an “elevated disagreement” among two of the students during my presentation about literacy. What remains with me from that day was the strength Zukin exuded in grounding the class down and helping them tune into what I was presenting. From there, we’ve forged a friendship dotted with long talks about grace, wellness and motherhood.
Readers will likely have a similar experience when they read Zukin’s debut memoir, Every Day, I’m Brave: Cultivating Resilience to Gain Freedom from Fear (Wonderwell Press). She uses an engaging character-centric style of writing to share her journey through anxiety and OCD, all while loving her kids, healing her wounds and saving herself.
As an educator, Zukin knows how important it is for her memoir to be participatory for the reader. She provides homework of sorts by ending each chapter with a “Brave Reflection” section. Each addendum is a mini-therapy session, allowing the reader to see themselves and their loved ones differently.
Zukin has done “the work,” as it’s so often called in social media faux-therapy circles. But make no mistake: this is not a cheesy self-help book. Zukin shares the most intimate details of her healing within the pages of this part memoir/part life manual. From the dissolution of her marriage to the inner child healing that broke her down and built her up, Zukin lays it out bare for the reader. One technique she shares from her experience is called the Journey Backward in the chapter titled “History Lessons.” This chapter resonated with me because of its focus on Zukin’s young adult years, and how those experiences resonated with her decades later as a wife and mother.
Along with sage words of wisdom, Zukin’s memoir explores her relationships — and yes, names are named. I asked Zukin how those mentioned feel about the revelations in the book. “These are real conversations and things that happened. Still, it’s respectful to allow others to sit with it the way they need to,” she replied.
Sit with it, they shall, because Zukin assures me that her story is far from over and that more words are in store for us lucky readers. (“I already have seeds of the next book,” she said.) Until that next book is ready, Zukin is exploring a journal companion for Every Day, I’m Brave, and is developing a workshop template of her memoir suitable for group therapy.
If you’re looking for a means to reflect on your impact on family, friends and yourself, this book is just the way. As Zukin states in the introduction: “Moreover, we have to be willing to have the difficult and vulnerable conversations about what it’s like to move through life when fear holds us back.”
This article was originally published in Little Village’s September 2025 issue.
