Rachel Eliza Griffiths: Navigating Her Writing Journey Through Pain and Joy

NEW YORK — After her best friend died on the day Rachel Eliza Griffiths married Salman Rushdie and her husband was nearly stabbed to death a year later, the author and multimedia artist was left with no choice over what she would write about next. “I think there was a struggle when I tried not to put it into words, when I tried to avoid it, when I thought, ‘All of these life events have happened to me, but now I’m going to think about my next novel and my next collection of poetry,’” says Griffiths, whose memoir “The Flower Bearers” releases Tuesday. She ultimately conceded, “You cannot pass through these kinds of personal life events and ask your brain and your being to go back to who you were because you’re not the same.”