THE BOOK

CURATING GRIEF

A Creative Guide to Choosing What to Keep After a Loved One Dies

How do we decide what to keep after a loved one dies? This new book from certified grief coach and curator Charlene Lam offers an innovative way of seeing meaningful objects, the physical stuff, and our relationships with the dead, the living, and ourselves.

Launching Winter 2024:
Exclusive in-person in Los Angeles, November 2024
Wide release, December 12th, 2024

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THE SOY SAUCE PARALYZED ME …

I was standing in my mother’s kitchen, more than a year after she died. Staring at a bottle of soy sauce. Every time I looked at the soy sauce, I remembered how much she loved feeding people. Thanksgiving at her house. The Chinese congee she would make with the leftovers. How was it possible she would never cook again? How could I let it go?

HELLO!

I’m Charlene, grief coach and curator

I CREATE SPACES FOR GRIEF.

After my mother died suddenly in 2013, I leaned into my creativity and instincts as a curator to guide myself through grief.

Now I help other people with their grief and experiences of loss. As founder and curator of The Grief Gallery™, I present exhibitions and events about grief and loss, featuring belongings and meaningful objects.

As a certified grief coach, I work 1:1 with individuals, using my Curating Grief framework to help people process grief and loss in a creative, accessible way.

As a speaker, I’ve shared the lens of curating with thousands of grieving people, offering a helpful approach for navigating the practical and emotional aftermath of loss.

I’m thrilled to share my first book Curating Grief: A Creative Guide to Choosing What to Keep After a Loved One Dies with you. It’s launching in-person in Los Angeles the weekend of November 22-24th, 2024 at End Well and the Grieftastic Book Fair. Available in wide release on Thur Dec 12th, 2024.

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Questions or media queries: Hello@CharleneLam.com

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Questions or media queries: Hello@CharleneLam.com

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED THE EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH!

Whether you ordered the exclusive launch edition, bought your copy in-person at End Well, the Grieftastic Book Fair or the PAUSE Resource Fair, or just cheered me on, I am so grateful for you!

The Book will be out for wide release Thur Dec 12th!

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AN INTRODUCTION

Why Curate Grief?

Curating Grief is a creative, accessible way to explore grief and loss, through the objects — and the stories attached to them. Grief coach Charlene Lam explains how.

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Invitations to events, grief gatherings and book news

Charlene is a thought leader with a fresh, unique voice on how we can hold space for our grief –– and I could not be more grateful for her contributions to the grief, end-of-life and creative industries.

ALICA FORNERET

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PAUSE. GRIEF EDUCATOR AND AUTHOR.

Charlene has mastered a challenging and powerful skill as a speaker and coach — authentically weaving her personal, lived grief experience with her professional insights and expertise. Her storytelling allows others to see themselves in her grief, normalizing and validating their experiences while offering an approachable path toward meaning-making.

LITSA WILLIAMS

CO-FOUNDER, WHAT'S YOUR GRIEF

WHY OBJECTS?

Meaningful Objects and Grief

The belongings and physical objects can teach us a lot about grief — and be a starting point for healing and connection.

Meet Charlene Lam

Charlene is a certified grief coach, speaker and the founder of The Grief Gallery.

She is passionate about using the lens of curating to help grieving people navigate the aftermath of loss and when they feel ready, to transform their pain into something beautiful.

After her mother died suddenly in 2013, Charlene found herself drowning in grief … and her mom’s belongings. It’s a common problem: Feeling overwhelmed and unable to make choices after the death of a loved one. Charlene’s uncommon solution: Curating an exhibition about her mother.

She developed the Curating Grief™ framework to help others process grief in a creative, accessible way. (And no, you don’t need to be an artist or creative to curate!)

As a grief coach, she helps grieving individuals to feel lighter and better equipped to move forward with their own fullest lives. She is a triple-certified grief coach, including programs by leading grief experts and clinicians Claire Bidwell Smith and Megan Devine, and ongoing training through What’s Your Grief and the Portland Institute for Loss and Transition.

As curator of The Grief Gallery™, Charlene presents international exhibitions featuring the belongings of loved ones lost, with installations at events including the London Design Festival and End Well in Los Angeles.

As a speaker, she delivers talks and workshops on the power of creativity and storytelling for healthy grieving, sharing her Curating Grief approach with thousands of grievers and wellness professionals.

She stars in the short film Curating Grief: Loss and Objects, directed by UK filmmaker Jamie Max Lee.

Her personal artwork has been showcased at the Brooklyn Museum (NY), Bildmuseet (Sweden), and the Museum of Craft and Folk Art (San Francisco). Her Curating Grief work has been featured by platforms like The Dinner Party, What’s Your Grief, Reimagine, and the Good Grief Festival, with media mentions in Azure, Dezeen, British Vogue, and Architectural Digest.

A proud Chinese-American New Yorker, Charlene is based in Lisbon, Portugal. She works with clients worldwide (and really wants you to ask her about the soy sauce in her mother’s kitchen.)

Curating Grief: A Creative Guide to Choosing What to Keep After a Loved One Dies (Winter 2024) is her first book. Learn more at www.curatinggrief.com and follow her on instagram @Curating_Grief