Make Time for These 12 Mini-Memoirs...
Welcome to Memoir Monday—a weekly newsletter featuring the best personal essays from around the web, and a quarterly reading series, brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Granta, Guernica, Oldster Magazine, Literary Hub, and Orion Magazine — plus 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 latest original essay, published in the First Person Singular series last week, is “The Bedroom” by Kate Vieira. The next original essay is coming this Wednesday.
***Submissions for First Person Singular are now PAUSED. An overwhelming number of new submissions have recently come in (I think because some websites have posted my submissions guidelines and email address?). There are way more essays in my inbox than I could publish in two years. And I’m too overwhelmed to keep bringing in more to read before I go through all those already in there, even with help from recently appointed contributing editor Katie Kosma. (Welcome, Katie!)
Going forward, there will be specific submission periods, which I will announce here. You can find submissions guidelines and more on the “About” page, but, again, submissions are currently PAUSED.
In other news, recently, I launched a new video interview series for paying subscribers. Check out “How to Be Your Own Agent,” the latest video interview with Chloe Caldwell, author of four books including The Red Zone: A Love Story, published last April. Chloe and I talk about how she has acted as her own agent, for the most part, in publishing her books with indie presses.
Essays from partner publications…
An Apparent Lowering of the Moral Standards in Lepidoptera
by Morgan Thomas
“For most animals, queer sex is loud. Female Kob antelopes whistle to other females. Female koalas bellow. Female coupled red foxes gekker—mouths wide open, teeth nearly touching, paws on each other’s chests, throats working around a sound somewhere between a keen and desperate laughter. Female gray foxes snirk.”
For As Many Days As We Have Left
by Pam Houston
“In the middle of writing this essay, I texted Mike the question “what does it mean to love another person in a dying world?” He was in Colorado, and I was in California. He texted back: Love provides respite from the suffering? Grounds one in the present instead of dwelling in the fear of the future? Provides a feeling of safety even as everything falls apart? Moving forward toward the danger together?”
On the Uncertain Border Between Writing and Therapy
by Veronica Esposito
“On a micro level, therapy has changed the very texture of the language that I use to speak and think my way through life; and on a macro level, it has transformed the basics of how I conceptualize myself and my world. To put it into literary terms, it’s a little like I switched the genre of my life—from say the claustrophobic modernism of a Franz Kafka to the truth-seeking comedy of a Lorrie Moore.”
When Food Is the Only Narrative We Consume
by Angie Kang
“Chinese culture can't be made bite-sized for mass consumption: There are so many other stories to tell that aren't only food-related. The number of films about different cultures may be increasing, but their depth often remains limited to what's palatable for white audiences. It's time to examine who we're really making these narratives for ... I'd like to see more Chinese stories that aren't explicitly linked to food. We don't stop living in between meals.”
Passing Down My Sierra Legacy
by Kathleen Canrinus
“The first-day’s climb to Agnew Lake and on to Gem Lake is grueling—kickass, as the girls put it. I hike a few yards, pause to catch my breath, hike a few more yards, breathe…hike onward, to a tree, a pointed rock, that purple wildflower. I sit down frequently on flat rocks beside the trail. A favorite haiku becomes my mantra: Oh Snail. Climb Mount Fuji. But slowly, slowly. My trail buddies climb steadily. ”
These Stolen Twins
by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
“Like many autistic people, I find neurotypical communication fascinating but often deficient in fixedness. Since childhood I have examined ostensibly arbitrary conversation for repeated patterns, and my social ability has been informed largely by what I have discovered. The principle I find easiest to neglect is that dialogue with new acquaintances must be comprised exclusively of topics relating to the participants themselves. Following this theory, though, naturally prohibits any discussion of my central interests, all of which are typically perceived as obscure. An intense preoccupation with a singular topic is a common autistic characteristic, and my own all-consuming interests have previously included: Recurring Lyrics in Popular Music, Ponies Native to the British Isles and Welsh Former MP Neil Kinnock (this fascination took me for several years at the age of nine and was supremely unhelpful in peer interaction). The singular issue I have been most keen to discuss in recent years, whether in a supermarket queue, at a wedding or a children’s birthday party, is Local Identity and Geographical Resettlement Patterns of the First Italian Diaspora. I can regretfully confirm that this is not a subject which promotes conversation.”
Essays from around the web…
Smorgasbord (Winner of Pigeon Pages’ Nonfiction Contest)
by Molly Tolsky
“Inspiring quotes on the internet tell me I shouldn’t feel bad about my postpartum body. It is the very same body that grew an entire human being, after all, complete with a nervous system and complicated ear canals and two whole eyeballs, magic seeing orbs of blue. It is not cool to be insecure about your body. We are supposed to be over that, body positive, celebrating the stretch marks and stomach pouch like the badges of mommy honor they are. So not only do I feel bad about my body, but bad about the way I feel bad about my body. I am not supposed to want it to look different. But what if I do?”
I Thought Uncovering My Father’s Deepest Secrets Would Make Us Closer. I Was Wrong.
by Sophia Laurenzi
“‘I’m a gay man.’ I can only guess how many times he rehearsed saying those words. Each one came out like the breaths I saw him take when he loosened his tie after a day of important meetings at his office. But neither of my parents could have prepared for the hollowness that set in amongst the tears we all shared ― the hole left by losing, in an instant, the hope that life could stay contained within our expectations of what it was supposed to be.”
A Brief History of My Bellybutton
by Ebony Haight
“I read in an old dream dictionary that dreams about the belly refer to repressed emotions. An exposed abdomen signifies vulnerability. If you’re injured in the stomach, this is about emotional hurt. To dream of your navel is to long to see and be seen as your true self.”
On Reflection
by Angelina Mazza
“We assume that we know our own bodies. We describe them as temples, cages, a wonderland, the sum of our choices. The body is embedded within our language. Knowing something like the back of your hand means that you know it well. But what happens when you can’t access that information? How do you navigate a world that not only expects you to know what you look like, but to also keep changing parts of yourself to fit a socially manufactured mould?”
Flight
by Jamie Etheridge
“But transitions are never easy. They do not respect straight roads or timelines. They arc and twist, dip and whirl. They blur. Are indeterminate and sometimes, interminable.”
Building a Bridge
by Chris McGlone
“It wasn’t going to be a big bridge, just two lanes, about three hundred feet long and twenty feet or so above the Little Sandy River. Most people would drive over it without noticing they were crossing a bridge. Construction had just begun in the spring of 1973 when I started as an inspector’s helper with my father, an engineer with the Kentucky Highway Department. I had dropped out of college in what would have been the last semester of my engineering degree.”
🚨Announcements:
Get ready for the AWP offsite edition of the quarterly Memoir Monday reading series, Saturday, March 11th, hosted by Lilly Dancyger! This edition, in Seattle, features Raquel Gutiérrez, Erin Keane, Sabrina Imbler, and Comonghne Felix.
📢 The Woodstock Bookfest is back, March 30th to April 2nd in Woodstock, NY! If you attend, don’t miss the personal essay panel on April 1st, featuring Alexander Cheek, Gary Shteyngart, and Carolita Johnson, moderated by me, Sari Botton.
📢 Writer and creativity coach Catherine LaSota, founder of the Resort writing community, is offering a new workshop this month to help you fall in love with your writing practice and achieve your writing goals! Join the Love Your Writing workshop on February 15th at 7:30pm ET. In this 90-minute live workshop, Catherine will guide you through a series of exercises to audit your writing environment, connect to the purpose behind your writing projects, and generate both new writing and a plan to make progress on your big writing goals. More information and sign up here. All registrants receive a recording of the workshop.
📢 The Essay as '“Attempt”: Making Sense of the World with Personal Essays— Catapult editor Matt Ortile will be leading this three hour workshop via Kundiman on Sunday, March 5th from 2-5pm Eastern. *Open to all writers of color. Scholarships available.
📢 Attention Publications and writers interested in having published essays considered for inclusion in our weekly curation:
By Thursday of each week, please send to memoirmonday@gmail.com:
The title of the essay and a link to it.
The name of the author, and 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.
You can also support Memoir Monday—and indie bookstores!—by browsing this Bookshop.org list of every book that’s been featured at the Memoir Monday reading series. It’s a great place to find some new titles to add to your TBR list!
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