The Book of Alchemy: Suleika Jaouad on Healing, Creativity, and Turning Pain into Meaning

About this sermon

Today’s guest is the extraordinary Suleika Jaouad — Emmy Award–winning journalist, bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms, and the founder of The Isolation Journals, a global creative community of more than 100,000 writers and artists. Many of you first encountered Suleika through Between Two Kingdoms, her searing memoir about being diagnosed with leukemia in her twenties and navigating the long, nonlinear road between illness and healing. It was a Jen Hatmaker Book Club selection in March 2023, and it has stayed with so many of us. In this conversation, Suleika joins Jen to talk about her newest book, The Book of Alchemy, a luminous collection of essays, prompts, and reflections from more than 100 contributors across disciplines. Together, they explore how creativity helps us metabolize pain, sit with uncertainty, and make meaning from what we’ve lived through — especially when life doesn’t resolve neatly. Suleika speaks honestly about living in the middle: between diagnosis and remission, despair and joy, isolation and connection. She shares why journaling can be a sacred, rule-free space, how letting go of productivity unlocks our most honest ideas, and why storytelling isn’t about fixing our lives — it’s about inhabiting them more fully. Whether you’re a writer, an artist, someone walking through a hard season, or simply trying to make sense of your own story, this episode will meet you right where you are. In This Episode, Jen and Suleika Discuss ● Why healing is rarely linear — and why that matters ● Journaling as a sacred, unedited practice (no rules required) ● How creativity helps us live with uncertainty instead of rushing past it ● The origin and impact of The Isolation Journals ● Turning pain into meaning without needing tidy conclusions Thought-Provoking Quotes “There is no right or wrong way to journal. There are no rules. You don’t have to be a good writer.” — Suleika Jaouad “I try to make the journal a sacred space where I get to be my most unedited, most chaotic self.” — Suleika Jaouad “When I stop making certainty or perfection the goal, it releases me from measuring myself against how far I am from that goal.” — Suleika Jaouad Tags Suleika Jaouad, The Book of Alchemy, Between Two Kingdoms, Jen Hatmaker, For the Love Podcast, Healing through creativity, Journaling practice, Creative healing, Storytelling and trauma, Women’s stories, Midlife healing, The Isolation Journals, Writing as healing, Nonlinear healing Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ➢ American Symphony documentary on Netflix – https://www.netflix.com/title/81728930 ➢ The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad – https://amzn.to/3KPqWTD ➢ The Art of Survival | In living with cancer, Suleika Jaouad has learned to wrench meaning from our short time on Earth by Jennifer Senior | The Atlantic – https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/06/suleika-jaouad-writer-health-cancer/678210/?utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook ➢ Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted by Suleika Jaouad – https://amzn.to/48KO9y5 ➢ The Isolations Journals on Substack – https://theisolationjournals.substack.com/ ➢ Jon Batiste – https://www.jonbatiste.com/ ➢ Piano for Super Bowl LIX 2025 – https://noma.org/exhibitions/jaouad-batiste-piano/#exhibition-works Guest’s Links: Website - https://www.suleikajaouad.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/suleikajaouad/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SuleikaJaouadPage Substack - https://theisolationjournals.substack.com/ Connect with Jen! Jen’s Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/ Jen’s Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmaker Jen’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Jen’s Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmaker Jen’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy.

Topics

• Suffering & Trials
• Healing