Memoir Monday Newsletter for 6/8
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.
Living in Dread of the Next Name We'll Chant
by Gabrielle Bellot (Photograph by Lorie Shaull/Flickr)
There is hope in the sheer size and power of our protests, hope that our message of not devaluing our lives will truly, finally be heard—but whether or not that message will be understood in the hearts that need it most is a much harder, scarier question.
What Didn’t Kill Her
by Bernice L. McFadden
You sounded a little out of breath and a tad bit embarrassed that he was causing such a fuss. You couldn’t explain exactly how you’d ended up on the floor. You did remember that you were standing at the bottom of the stairs watching my brother and his friend carry a love seat to the second floor apartment and then, the next thing you knew, my brother and his friend were standing over you calling your name as they shook you back to consciousness.
The Kobold
by Daisy Hildyard
I had believed that it was dangerous to open up the individual in this way. To tear open the human self, I reasoned, would jeopardize those rights of self-possession, and this, in turn, would put the most vulnerable individuals at risk. In fact it is the other way round. A belief in self-containment is what corrodes human skin.
Variants of Unknown Significance
by Mai Tran
I rarely wear bras. I always wondered why you wore one, despite the negative space. Maybe to retain some femininity, maybe to cover the scars purpled with age, maybe because you thought all women should wear one regardless of necessity. I cannot remember a time when you weren’t flat. I study old photographs, try to decipher if your size was similar to mine. When my grandmother asks for help buttoning her blouses, I glance between the folds and try to fill in the gaps.
The American Medical System Doesn't Care How Much My Vagina Hurts (comic)
by Issy Manley
Living with severe vulva pain—and searching for treatment for so long—was exhausting. Since I stopped working full time, I’ve been on Obamacare and Medicaid. Managing the residual pain I still experience myself—on long car rides, during my period, and sometimes sex—feels easier than the stress, cost and time of finding new doctors.
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