Fainting, vivisection, and things that go bump in the night
Welcome back to Memoir Monday—a weekly newsletter and monthly reading series, brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Longreads, Tin House, 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.
Meeting My Third Family
by Margot Livesey (art by Hannah Lock)
During my five days in Elimbah, I was surprisingly happy when some people recognized me as a cousin. Others did not. Both responses make sense to me. Genes are about probabilities, not actualities. . . . I am deeply fortunate to have my non-DNA family, even if our relationships depend on mutual affection; even if they have no name. But on Sunday, September 9, 2018, I had supper with my first cousin once removed, two second cousins, and a second cousin once removed. Briefly, I was part of that mysterious organism, a biological family; no one cared about my virtues or my bad behavior.
The Space Between Us
by Emily James
And here we are, two soft bodies made of matching cells, touching skin, as our minds become repelling magnets—the more I push, the further she goes. I know you are lying, I tell her, but I’m grasping at what isn’t mine, and she keeps falling backwards into herself, to that place where I can barely see her at all.
Doesn’t it Keep You Up at Night?
by Joe Nasta
The dark is not a monster. The dark is all monsters. It’s what I’ll never know about myself and that is the reason I can’t sleep tonight, even feeling the moon and her shadows. It’s no use laying here at 1 a.m. I plunge my feet towards the void below my bed, brace myself, and rise.
Confessions of a Fainting Man
by John Sucich
My family tells me that the Disney medics swooped in as soon as I hit the floor. It was all so quick, I don’t even know if my younger brother, who was walking ahead of us, even knew anything was amiss. Everyone was remarkably calm. After determining that I didn’t need to go to a hospital, the medics dispersed. I regained consciousness with no side effects — except one. Now I dreaded the day I might have a child of my own.
How to Survive a Vivisection
by Rachel Somerstein
I never could have predicted what happened: my OB performed a C-section on me without anesthesia. Go on, read it again. Because of the anesthesiologist’s mistake, and the OB’s desire to get it done, I had major abdominal surgery without anesthetic. In a hospital, in the United States, in 2016. It’s more common than you’d think.
Writers’ Resources
If you’re in London, celebrate the launch of Granta’s new issue with the “The Idea of Europe” panel on 11/7!
Submissions are now open to pitch a conference session for HippoCamp 2020—the creative nonfiction conference.
RSVP for the October 21 Memoir Monday reading—a special edition celebrating the Burn It Down anthology
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