Don't miss our reading this *Friday* at AWP!
Welcome back to Memoir Monday—a weekly newsletter and quarterly reading series, brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Longreads, Granta, and Guernica. Each essay in this newsletter has been selected by the editors at the above publications as the best of the week, delivered to you all in one place. It may be the start of a new work week, but at least we have this great new writing to get us through it.
Soli / dairy / ty
by Liza Monroy (photo illustration by Katie Kosma—The Image Bank / Getty Images Plus, Luis Villasmil / Unsplash)
My sweet, patient husband was left questioning whether his marriage vows extended to living with a lactating mom gone vegan who was channeling the souls of dairy cows. But when I forced him to watch five minutes of footage of a moments-old calf learning to latch and nurse in extreme close-up — along with every top-rated plant-based documentary, titles like Vegucated, The Shame of Point Reyes, Vegan Everyday Stories, and Cowspiracy — , he offhandedly observed: “That’s just like Aleshandra.” Our baby.
How a Black Girl Learned to Fly
by Ravynn Stringfield
In my determination to travel, I never told anyone how anxious flying made me. When I got accepted to my first study abroad trip—two whole weeks to explore Paris—I bought myself a set of suitcases, a new journal, and a plane ticket, as if I’d always meant to fly.
Father Time is Undefeated
by Chris Ames
After his brief hiatus, our dad decided that he did, in fact, want in on this family thing. In my mind, the gap was something akin to a CD skipping, a small disruption in the regularly scheduled programming.
My Secret Life Tracking Down Medical Debtors
by Angela Lundberg
One thing that hasn’t changed in the last 13 years of doing this job is its wacky-weird unpredictability. At each residence I visit, I never know who or what I’ll run into: a spiteful neighbor with binoculars, a slacker “bro” stoned out of his mind, people hanging out in their underwear, a devious debtor hiding in the garage.
History is Music Box
by Channa Riedel
Pappa and his family escaped before the war officially broke out and they were not therefore granted refugee status, nor – for the same reason – were they ever entitled to reparations for the property they lost in the war. They are considered to have left their apartment voluntarily and someone else moved into their home after them, drank from their cups, slept on their sheets, opened the windows onto the canal, breathed in deeply. The remaining family, who were murdered, on the other hand, have a right to wartime reparations. Pappa’s grandmother had to be murdered in the gas chambers before she had the right to refugee status.
Writers’ Resources
Sign up for Catapult’s 2-week online class, “What’s at Stake in the Personal Essay?”—$99, starting March 11!
If you’re going to be at the AWP conference—and/or if you live in San Antonio, TX—come to the very special AWP edition of the Memoir Monday reading series! (This Friday!)
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Until next Monday,