A Lucky 13 Personal Essays to Start Your Week Off Right
Welcome to Memoir Monday—a weekly newsletter and a quarterly reading series, brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Granta, Guernica, Oldster Magazine, Literary Hub — and now many additional publications.
In addition to the weekly curation, there are now original personal essays under the heading of First Person Singular, for paying subscribers.
The eighth original essay, published in the First Person Singular series in September, is “Cooking With Dana For the Last Time” by Dianne Jacob. The ninth original essay is coming in October. Submissions are open. You can find submissions guidelines and more on the “About” page.
Essays from partner publications…
My Strange, Seductive Stint as the Hugh Hefner of Moscow
by Vijai Maheshwari
“I took to the crazy energy of the times with a passion matching — or, more honestly, exceeding — that of the wide-eyed Russians emerging from 70 years of Communism. Even in mad Moscow, I was crazier than most.”
A Snapshot Diagnosis
by Morgan Thomas
“I know little about Frank Woodhull’s life beyond the story of that day on Ellis Island. But immediately after that first encounter, I chose Woodhull as an ancestor. My gender, I decided, was of Woodhull’s lineage.”
Treatment as Noun
by Piper Gourley
“A Lesson in Treatment (singular noun)
Your personality is a bag of symptomology. Your heart is a wet feather, your mind, a weighted ball. Everything in you is made to sink.”
On Muriel Spark’s Complicated Balancing of Writing and Motherhood
by Begoña Gómez Urzaiz
“I suspect I wouldn’t get rich writing a manual on mindlessness, an invented discipline of which I consider myself an expert: how to always feel that you are in the wrong place, with your mind elsewhere. There and then instead of here and now. Mindlessness is reached, I would write in my self-sabotage manual for beginners, when you tense up in front of the computer after ten hours of work, sensing that you should be shaping play dough with your children, or at least making them dinner. It is peak mindlessness also to read a story to your child while at the same time eyeing the time on your cell phone to calculate if half an hour with Peter Rabbit is enough, if someone is keeping track of all this and will rule in favor of the plaintiff in the end.”
Quitting Beef
by Aaron Gilbreath
“Yes, burgers rule. They are pure summer pleasure. They're the essence of culinary equality and accessibility and one of America’s truly great exports, uniting people across cultural and economic lines. They’re also a symbol of ecological tone deafness. Me quitting beef is a drop in the bucket in the bigger scheme, but as a parent, I need to model responsible climate behavior to my daughter.”
The Joy of Living—and Writing—the Truth
by William Dameron
“I have been asked multiple times why four years ago, at 55, I published a memoir, without exception, always following a compliment. You wrote a book? How incredible! What’s it about?…However, the professor did not congratulate me or ask for my name or memoir title. His question was direct, and to be honest, I did not know if he was asking why I told him or if he was questioning the motivation behind the hard work of writing a book.”
Essays from around the web…
Goodbye Brooklyn: Streets of No Return
by Michael A. Gonzales
“Even though Brooklyn was full of writers, most magazine and newspaper articles of that era perpetrated the myth that pens dried-up and typewriters stopped working once you crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. It was during that time I started reading a few other Brooklyn-based books including Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr., The Assistant by Bernard Malamud and Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall as well as essays by Norman Mailer, Pete Hamill and Truman Capote. ”
I’m Not Scared of Death, But I Can’t Stop Asking This One Question
by Kelly Eden
“Jonathon Larson was 35 years old when he died. 8 years younger than I am today. Since watching the movie, Tik Tik Boom I can’t seem to let go of a question it brought back up for me…It’s a question I’ve asked myself many times since being diagnosed with an immune disorder 15 years ago: If I die today, have I done enough with my life?”
A Patient Record
by Mary Zhou 周世芳
“And what could it be? I walk a lot. I’m out in the cold. I wonder how dark and quiet God can be. I eat things not right for me. I am lonely. I think too much. I think about money, or not enough of it. I sleep badly. I am heartbroken…I scatter a handful of this into his coat pockets.”
What Adiba Nelson Taught Me About Self Love
by Tamara MC
“During a recent Zoom coffee date, I asked Adiba questions about what I lack in life and what I feel many women do—support, self-love, and confidence. One of the things I loved most about her memoir was the thread of strong female friendships. So, I was curious how Adiba learned to be a friend. I was surprised to hear that, like me, Adiba is an only child, and like me, she also always wanted siblings. Because of this, she said she treated all of her girlfriends like sisters. She said, "It doesn't matter that we're not the same color. We're family.”
I Spent My Life Avoiding Thrills. Then My Son Discovered Roller Coasters.
by Irina Dumitrescu
“I have spent my life avoiding thrills. My son is ten and tall enough for roller coasters. I am forty-one, and I have only ever been on one. I always find a reason to stay away. Someone needs to take care of the smaller kids, I say. Or: I’m not interested. It’s not my idea of fun. Who knows what could go wrong? Fear promises control over the chaos of life, but most of life remains stubbornly unbiddable. After decades of chasing safety, I decide, I’m no longer willing to pay the costs of a life that avoids risk. I’m willing, at last, to be afraid.”
To Come of Age
By Eshani Surya
“You've been through a lot together, people usually say, and that seems to help them understand how serious our relationship is. We nod, then look at each other. In that glance, we share it all. They will never know that time, strangely like a cocoon of grief and terror. We were safe inside it, even as we knew this could be the end, because we were unified, together. We were constructing the memories that will forever mark our collective. No other love in my life will carry more than the story inside them. You, though, you will have those scenes carved into your bones, like the needle marks on my marrow.”
Swimming with My Grandma
by Brooke Randel
“On my birthday, my grandma loses her speech. Her caregiver thinks it might be a stroke. She is rushed to the ER and I visit her there hours later when her speech has returned and she uses it to introduce me to the nurse. She’s Romanian, she tells me, delighted. This is my granddaughter, she tells her with the same grin. More doctors and nurses wish me happy birthday than friends. My grandma has not had a stroke, but there was a temporary blockage to her brain and it could happen again or differently or worse.”
🚨Announcements:
📢 Publicity 101 for Writers with veteran book publicist Lauren Cerand and Sari Botton on 10/8/22 is sold out! BUT…the resulting video will be a perk for paid subscribers to Memoir Monday!
Are you a writer struggling to effectively publicize your work? Are you looking to grow the reach and visibility of your published writing, and find more publishing opportunities? Do you shy away from putting yourself out there because you’re not sure of the best ways to do so—and because you’ve been persuaded to believe self-promotion is shameful?
You’ll want to watch the resulting video from this seminar/interview! If you’re a paid subscriber to Memoir Monday, you’ll have access to it.
📢 Proposing & Editing Anthologies Workshop at Catapult, beginning 10/13
I’ll be leading my anthology editing workshop at Catapult once again. Only 12 spots. Sign up!
📢 Attention Publications and writers interested in having published essays considered for inclusion in our weekly curation:
By Thursday of each week, please send to memoi the author’s Twitter handle.
A paragraph or a few lines from the piece that will most entice readers.
Because of data limits for many email platforms, going forward we will only include artwork from our partner publications. No need to send art.
*Please be advised, however, that we cannot accept all submissions, nor respond to the overwhelming number of emails received. Also, please note that we don’t accept author submissions from our partner publications.
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