Welcome to Memoir Land—a newsletter edited by Sari Botton, now featuring four verticals:
Memoir Monday, a weekly curation of the best personal essays from around the web brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus, Granta, Guernica, Oldster Magazine, Literary Hub, Orion Magazine, The Walrus, Electric Literature, and as of this week, WBUR’s Cognoscenti. Welcome, WBUR! Below is this week’s curation. ⬇️
First Person Singular, featuring original personal essays.
The Lit Lab, featuring interviews—The Memoir Land Author Questionnaire—and essays on craft and publishing. There are also weekly writing prompts and other exercises from, ahem, a New York Times bestselling ghostwriter of memoirs (that’s me) exclusively for paid subscribers.
Goodbye to All That, where I continue to explore my fascination with the most wonderful and terrible city in the world, something I began doing with two NYC-centric anthologies, Goodbye to All That, and Never Can Say Goodbye.
“I appreciate you shining light on writers and their work” - Shea Aleman, paid subscriber. You, too, can support the hard work of producing Memoir Land five days a week…
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Essays from Partner Publications…
Diary of a Degenerate Gambler Turned Hollywood Writer
by James McSherry
“When I felt the first real rush of gambling, I was barely 13. My grandmother Nanny Suzy brought me to Aqueduct racetrack in Queens. Uncle Ed and Uncle Al were with us, and so was my cousin John, who was 18 and able to make my bets for me. Trips to the racetrack were a glorious outing for me, but my mother hated gambling.”
Famesick: On the Frackable Self
by Yvonne Conza
“In Famesick, Lena Dunham describes the psychic logic that accompanies this kind of availability: “I felt, deeply, that if I didn’t give away much of what I had, then I might never get to keep it.” Boundary-setting begins to feel like a failure of kindness. You fear becoming, in other people’s stories, selfish, withholding, ungenerous. And so you continue giving long after the realization that reciprocity was never really there. What others required was not you exactly, but your limitless usefulness: your labor, emotional availability, responsiveness, and willingness to remain open. Gradually, that usefulness begins to eclipse your personhood.”
4 things people ‘from away’ need to understand about Maine
by Naomi Schalit
“If the whole world is going to talk about Maine, I thought it would be a good idea to help clarify — for the whole world — a few things about the state they’ve elevated to such importance, because Maine isn’t just spruce trees, wood stoves and flannel shirts. Here are four crucial things you should know.”
To a Bird Watcher
by Faith Palermo
“While I sit at my desk to write, you shine a laser pointer through my window. With a fluid motion of your hands, I become segmented. Concentrated green light outlines my chest, my throat, my eyes. I feel the slice, skin turning cold, distanced. You act, and I react. You shine, and I shut my blinds.”
A Package of Love Sent, Through the Hedge
by Viney Kirpal
“Now, freed from heart failure after six years through a transplant, I felt the air move again—a breath of unburdened happiness, a butterfly’s wing lifting in the breeze. The rooms carried the mingling scents of jasmine and sandalwood, old safety and new beginnings…Then, COVID-19 arrived.”
Essays from around the web…
The Night My Marriage Fell Apart
By Chris Jones
“I did not feel lucky. When I had said goodbye to Amy—the crush of my teenage dreams, my wife of 14 years—we cried and hugged and said we’d miss each other, the way we’d done when I’d left for work a thousand times before. But that goodbye felt different. Our marriage was in a bad place, snared in a tangle of resentments. We each had our share of grievances and believed our complaints were more valid than the other’s. Neither of us shifted from our positions, so nothing got fixed. (Amy is a pseudonym.)
The Stillness That Once Saved Me
by Becca Rose
“I feel most comfortable in the rain. The vines soak up the droplets, and the noises of the forest are swallowed by the torrent until they can’t hear my eyes join the clouds. The grey sheet of water hides my open eyes and the reflection of sunlight that remains in them, no matter how long they have tried to dry them out. My feet burn as I stare unblinkingly at the edge of the clearing, where the sun peeks through on summer days, enough to create new shapes on the ground.”
The Post-Launch Blues
by Shigeko Ito
“I had imagined that releasing my legacy memoir into the world would feel like a finish line. Instead, it felt more like falling off a cliff into an unexpectedly quiet void. This essay explores the unspoken grief of the post-publication period as a one-and-done memoirist—that strange, hollow space where my deepest vulnerability is suddenly public, and the world simply keeps moving.”
I Was 12 When I First Encountered 'The Fat Project.' I Had No Idea How Deeply It Would Affect Me.
by Anna Rollins
“The Fat Project was an extreme diet standing in front of a funhouse mirror, a mean circus of gluttony. The website moderators mocked the contestants, frequently deriding them with insults about their bodies and even their morality. Nicole sought liberation, but the spectacle made her a laughingstock. Still, it felt revolutionary to watch a woman willingly sacrifice what was, I believed, her one source of power — her thin body.”
Have You?
by Caitlin McGill
“Have: to hold or maintain as a possession, privilege, or entitlement—I have a car; I have a choice; I have a story to tell. Or: to feel obligation—have to have. And another: to experience especially by submitting to, undergoing, or suffering—I have a cold. Now, thirty-one and newly sober, you don’t feel like you possess what happened with Dane: neither the agency nor the complete memory. Definitely not pleasure. Did you, then, experience it? Have it? Perhaps only in the sense of obligation, and in service of your wish to be desired. Did you, as in another definition, partake?”
Family Tree
by Deborah Linder
“My in-laws showed up unexpectedly that day. When the doorbell rang, I confronted my father-in-law, my first mother-in-law, and my third mother-in-law. They were stacked haphazardly beside the door in three boxes with sinister “Cremated Remains” stickers affixed to them, along with Priority Mail labels and metered stamps that showed just how very expensive it had been to transport them from California.”
Her Day in Court
by Marcia Yudkin
“I sat tensely in the witness box, my vision and hearing narrowed to a rectangle that ran from me to the judge. The rest of the courtroom, including my husband leaning forward on the edge of his seat in the back row, disappeared. I knew only the hard, dark wood enclosing me, the robed man asking solemn questions, and my sacred responsibility, bolstered by all the legal dramas I’d watched on TV up to my age of 40,
to tell him the truth. At stake: $4000 and who had fact on their side.”
Eighteen Years with Birds at the Table
by Pamela Pérez | The Long Table
“They left their cages at the end of the day, worn out from so much hesitation. Accustomed to their wooden bars, they returned to them every night to eat birdseed, to bathe, and to sleep. Over time they grew so comfortable that their freedom allowed them to adopt our confinement. They had a little tea saucer where we served them the same food we ate: rice, tomato, noodles, lentils, meat, egg, Christmas cake — they ate everything — first on the floor, then at the table.”
The Last Pap Smear
by Rita Ott Ramstad
“‘I know I should be glad,’ I say, ‘but it feels weird.’ ‘Yeah, I get that,’ she says. I know I should be glad because no one likes a Pap smear. The cold gel. The hard speculum. The hollow scraping. The feet up in stirrups while you’re on your back with your most intimate and vulnerable parts open to what feels like the world. I want to feel glad to leave this particular experience behind, but instead I feel unsettled.”
🚨Announcements:
📢 “Inside Jokes”: A Comedic Memoir Workshop from Elissa Bassist at the 92nd Street Y
This workshop will help you turn raw material into a memoir that sells. You’ll write a lot, workshop your writing for suggestions and compliments, and receive instructor feedback with meticulous line edits. Expect hilarious readings, infinite handouts, in-class brainstorming and discussion, and solicited and unsolicited advice on writing, publishing, and promoting your work and fart jokes. Come with memoirs in mind or in progress, or come to be inspired. This course is the chance of a lifetime to expand your humor writing portfolio, experiment with voice and form, and gain the skills and the confidence to make readers—and yourself—laugh. June 19-July 9th.
📢 Two New Classes from Five Things I've Learned, with Adam Gopnik and Peter Orner
On Sunday, June 7th, best-selling author, essayist, public speaker, lyricist and libretto writer Adam Gopnik shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the mysterious alchemy of rules, practices, and inner secrets that memoir writers can best apply to their own work.
On Sunday, June 14th, celebrated novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and professor Peter Orner shares the Five Things He’s Learned about the ways that great writers bind fact and invention to create something new: the fictions we cherish.
Use the discount code MEMOIRLAND10 to save ten dollars off the ticket price to each class—and now through July 1st, to any Five Things I’ve Learned class, including my own (Sari Botton) recent class, Five Things I’ve Learned about what Aging Means to Oldsters.
📢 Three of Literary Liberation’s New Workshops…
Writer’s Block Isn’t Real: On Embracing Stillness with Jasper “Jaz” Joyner:
Reframe “writer’s block” and equip yourself with practical tools-like an inspiration checklist and a personalized prevention plan-to reconnect with your creative flow. Transform frustration into clarity and leave with a grounded, repeatable approach to sustaining your creativity long after the session ends.
Saturday, June 13 // 11a - 2p EST. Price: from $159
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That’s All She Wrote: Short Stories by Black Women with Savannah Balmir Bowen:
Explore powerful stories by Black women writers to deepen your understanding of voice, form, pacing, and perspective while generating new work. Sharpen your storytelling toolkit, write alongside a vibrant community, and leave with fresh drafts and language that transforms how you read and create short stories.
Mondays: June 15 - July 6 // 6 - 8p EST. Price: from $229 (Memoir Monday reader can use MEMOIR10 for 10% off)
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Entering The Page: Found Poetry Through Toni Morrison with Dr. Tonia Dixon:
Step into language as living terrain where you’ll craft original poems guided by intuition, close reading, and a deep trust in your own voice. Move through Morrison’s language in a way that feels personal and alive, and leave with new work shaped from both her words and your own.
Thursday, June 18 // 5 - 7p EST. Price: from $119
📢 From Off Assignment: Writing Hybrid Memoir with 𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕝 Wallace, with class visits from Alexander Chee, Melissa Febos, Nina Renata Aron, and Megan Stielstra
Many of the most powerful memoirs go beyond the author’s own experience, bringing the reader a deeper, more multi-faceted story. Why shouldn’t memoir encompass more than the personal? After all, we’re defined not just by what happened to us, but also what we read, what we obsess over, what we love. Hybrid memoir, or “memoir-plus,” elegantly reflects that multiplicity within the self, while also lending readers the chance to transcend the particulars of one person’s life.
In this four-week course, we’ll explore the craft and possibilities of hybrid memoir and examine how hybrid memoirists draw power from their willingness to go beyond personal narrative into broader subjects like class, education policy, mental health, botany, ecology, and even the craft of writing itself. Students will have the chance to pose questions directly to guest authors and learn more about how they conceived of, executed, and published their books. Through in-class prompts, discussion and guided analysis, we’ll explore both the complications and exaltations of weaving multiple threads into one coherent piece of writing.
Mondays: June 8 - 29 // 7 - 9:30 p.m. Price: $420 (Memoir Monday readers can use code MEMOIR20 for 20% off)
📢 A New Workshop from Lilly Dancyger:
Art and the Self: Writing Personal/Critical Essays: In this three-hour generative session, read and discuss examples of personal/critical essays—essays that engage with art as a way to articulate something personal—and generate new writing that incorporates both art criticism and memoir. Saturday, June 13, 1-4pm EDT via Zoom.
📢 Submissions Are Open at How I Learned
Blaise Allysen Kearsley is considering essays of up to 1500 words and micro-essays between 500 and 800 words for her excellent magazine, How I Learned.
“What to send: Sharp, personal narratives with an evocative spin on existential-leaning themes. Stories about the horror and the hilarity of being in the world. The profound and the absurd; the texture, the nuance; a particular way of seeing. How we change, or don’t change; how the world changes, or fails to. How people try. Moments of discovery conflict with the old narrative and challenge a long-held belief. Little things are big. Not everything aligns. Nothing resolves neatly. Make meaning out of chaos, but leave us wondering what happens after it ends.”
📢 From Orion Magazine: Environmental Writers’ Workshop June 14-19, 2026 at Omega Institute
Join a community of writers, improve your craft, and reimagine how you think about nature. Guided by award-winning instructors, the Orion Environmental Writers’ Workshop provides an intimate space to connect with writers, artists, and editors, spark creativity, and renew, illuminate, and deepen your relationship with place. This week-long workshop is cosponsored by the Omega Center for Sustainable Living.
You’ll be studying with: Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, Erica Berry, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Maria Pinto, Roger Reeves, Nicholas Triolo, and Isle McElroy.
📢 ONLY TWO SPOTS LEFT! // From Jen Doll and Elizabeth Voetsch: Beyond the Noise—A Yoga + Writing Retreat in the Hudson Valley August 27-30
Four days of yoga + guided writing in an intentionally intimate group. You’ll return to what’s true for you and leave with real momentum on the page and in your life. Peel away from the demands of day-to-day life and chart your own unique path forward in the Catskill Mountains. Here, you’ll have the opportunity to pause and reconnect with yourself and your creative purpose.
Dates: Aug 27–30, 2026
Where: Spruceton Inn, West Kill, NY
Group size: Only 7 guests (intimate by design)
Rooms: All private rooms
Includes: Lodging + all meals + daily yoga + daily writing sessions
Investment: $3,000 (includes $500 deposit to secure your spot).
📢 From Writing Co-Lab: Peitho's Gift Writing Retreat in Crete, Greece
Join us for a week-long writing retreat at a lovely hotel on a quiet beach on the southern coast of Crete. Away from the crowds, Peitho’s Gift offers writers a peaceful place close to nature and steeped in history to connect with their creative spirit and partake in the joys of an intentional creative community. Your facilitators, Trish Fancher and Brian Gresko, will provide a structure designed to help you maximize your day’s productivity. The mornings are free for writing and enjoying the sea, while afternoons provide opportunities for socializing, and the day ends with writing salons and local delicacies.
📢 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.
Your name and Substack profile link, if you have one, so I can tag you in the post.
A paragraph or a few lines from the piece that will most entice readers.
Please be advised 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.
Notebooks! Shirts! Mugs! Get Your Memoir Land Merch!
So thrilled to see Caitlin’s piece up! Another great Memoir Monday!
Such a great line up. I loved Diary of a Degenerate Gambler Turned Hollywood Writer
by James McSherry. Brilliant, real, funny.