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, Oldster Magazine, Literary Hub, Orion Magazine, The Walrus, and Electric Literature. 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.
*While I have you…I could use some more support in the form of paid subscriptions. If I’ve featured your work or that of your publication’s contributors…if you’re a publicists whose clients I’ve regularly featured…if you just want to help me keep doing ALL THIS and paying contributors, please consider becoming a paid subscriber…*
*Click here to get more out of this post by reading it online rather than in your inbox.*
Essays from partner publications…
That Mexican: An Excerpt of Poppy State
by Myriam Gurba
“According to the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, strawberry sales generated $775 million last year. That’s more than enough to buy everyone who harvests this fruit a house on a hill surrounded by beguiling oaks and sleepy bees.”
Alice Waters on the Benefits of Making School Lunches With Local Ingredients
by Alice Waters
“I have been running Chez Panisse for fifty‑four years now. I started the restaurant in 1971 after living in France for a year and training in London to be a Montessori teacher. I was looking for the kind of flavor and beauty of food I had experienced in France in the 1960s. The fruits and vegetables I had seen in the French markets were fresh, alive, vibrant, delicious—and that was what I wanted everyone to experience when they came to Chez Panisse.”
Growth Spurts, In Reverse
by Melanie Chartoff
“Three-quarters of a century spinning around this Earth is making itself known—it means business, baby. I’ve stopped labeling the slowdowns as “phases” or “bad days,” or “not enough sleep” or “jetlagged” or “ate stupid” or “forgot vitamins.” These lapses must now be designated my new reality. I must get a gerontological grip with no excuses, apologies, shame or regret.”
Your Body Is Everywhere
by Jane Dykema
“At our taekwondo studio, blackbelts, teens, and adults are mixed in the same class. This means I, as a 39-year-old beginner, am in the same class with ten-year-old blackbelts, high school age color belts, and everyone in-between.”
Essays from around the web…
From Life in Prison to the Eras Tour
by Joe Garcia
“About a month after my release from prison, my editor at The New Yorker had surprised me with a question. If there were some way for me to attend the Eras Tour, would I want to write about it? I had to ask the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the B.P.H. for approval to travel more than fifty miles from home, and they granted it—on the condition that my editor accompany me.”
It’s Dead Around Here: A Ghost Town Enthusiast Searches for the Essence of these Scarecely Populated Locales
by Lauren Hough
“I’ve always loved a ghost town. Maybe it’s because I’m a fan of history. Maybe I’m just nosy. But I’m obsessed with seeing how people used to live, imagining the stories in what they leave behind. I can see a ghost town in my mind—dusty old buildings, crumbling bricks, sun-bleached boards, and signs blasted clean by the wind. A general store. A railway depot. A courthouse. A jail. Maybe a saloon. Off the main street, a few houses in varying states of decrepitude. I don’t know where the images come from. Movies maybe, or pictures in a magazine. Because I can’t think of a single ghost town I’ve visited, though not for lack of trying.”
The Last Time I’ll See My Mother: After a lifetime of hurt, I thought I was done. But distance and my own daughter have helped me rewrite our ending.
by Tara Ellison
“The fact that her dementia, which she’d been diagnosed with over a year ago, had progressed to the point of her not recognizing her own husband was why we were visiting. ‘It would be very good if you could come to Texas and see your mother,’ Jack had said some months before. ‘Your mother won’t admit there’s a problem.’ She had refused further testing, had refused to take medication, and also had a newly discovered heart condition (which was suspected to be the same one I have, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). It was clear my mother only wanted to live on her terms.”
My Husband, the Reluctant Barista
by Deborah Siegel-Acevedo
“I pressed my nose against the glass of the Starbucks on Main Street in our city of Evanston, Ill., spying on my husband from the sidewalk as he placed a sandwich in the warmer, taking instructions from a fellow Starbucks ‘partner’ half his age....’Mocha for Deborah!’ called out my husband’s co-worker, who shot me a kind glance. ‘You’re Marco’s wife?’ he said. ‘We think he’s great.’”
From Misfit to Medical to Meme: My Cannabis Crisis of Identity
by Tasha Kerry Smith
“We were misfits, good at hiding, we had to be – this double life was all we knew. I worked “normal” jobs, in marketing, and lived for evenings and weekends when I could spark up. And wore my outsider status as a badge of honour to bury my shame, the kind that comes with anything you’re forced to hide.”
Micro
by Monmita Chakrabarti
“I think and dream and write in English. At her Catholic girl’s school in Kolkata, Ma was punished if she was overheard speaking any language but English. Ma’s subtext is always digestibility will save you. Assimilation will save you, but how little of me survived being swallowed like a pill. Sometimes, I watch videos to learn the Bengali alphabet, writing the letters in my journal, then give up and forget within the next week.”
When I Became a Mom, I Had to Let My Partner Be the Breadwinner
by Rachel Kramer Bussel
“This new turn in our relationship is a leap of faith. He’s trusting me to care for our daughter, while I’m trusting that he won’t suddenly decide he’d rather be single and leave me without an income stream. (To his credit, he offered to put a prenup-type contract in writing, but I declined.)”
Confessions of a Breast Cancer Previvor
by Sonali Kolhatkar
“I’ve always been a doer. But this time I wondered, What have I done? So much for an elegant solution to my BRCA diagnosis. Rather than embody a joyful middle-finger to cancer, I was the Bride of Frankenstein. I could barely take a breath, let alone enjoy the wonders of a cancer-free existence.”
Daylight Rivers. Unburying Myself
by Jan Donley
“The word ‘daylighting’ appeals to the poet in me, writes Jan Donley. Bringing something out of the shadows and into the sun is, after all, a poetic story. So standing there, watching the flow of the river that had once been buried moved me.”
On Earth We’re Briefly Polite
by yating
“I would spare you the details of how I’m quad-lingual, speaking the Taiwanese dialect with my grandmother—a giveaway daughter whose only education was labour—learning Japanese because that’s what my partner blurts out when he feels the most fragile. I’d spare you the details, in case you go wide-eyed at how exotic it sounds.”
Boots & Blisters
by Michele Peters
“My Red Wing leather logger boots were brand new the day I started the job—a rookie mistake. I learned too late that they needed to be broken in slowly. By the end of that first day, I had deep, raw blisters bleeding through both of my socks, wounds that lasted the entire summer. At night, I peeled off my socks with shaking hands, the fabric stiff with dried blood and layers of shed skin. Some mornings, I laced my boots while biting the inside of my cheek so I wouldn’t groan and wake the other campers with those painful first steps.”
One City Block
by Laura Stanfill
“It feels like we’re living in upside-down world here in Portland, Oregon, based on the president’s assessment of our city as “war-ravaged.” Neighbors linger over coffee and vegan pastries. We push containers of homegrown grapes into each other’s hands now that the tomatoes are done. We share favorite books and recipes. We wear sparkly top hats to walk our dogs—or maybe that’s just me.”
🚨Announcements:
📢 Earlybird Registration Has Begun for the Southern Vermont Writers’ Conference, at Which I Am Leading a Workshop…
For the second time, I’ll be leading a personal essay writing workshop at The Southern Vermont Writers’ Conference.
*There are some scholarships available, too.
The Yvonne Daley Memorial Scholarship for a Vermont writer. This scholarship covers the conference fee.
The Third Act Scholarship for a writer 65+ which covers the conference fee.
The Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Scholarship which is a full scholarship covering the conference fee, lodging, and travel for a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Band to come and write in their ancestral homelands.
NEW! Emerging Voices Scholarship which covers the conference fee and lodging for an early-career writer from a community that is traditionally underrepresented in publishing.
The scholarship application deadline is November 1, 2025. Applicants will be notified by mid-December.
📢 From Narratively Academy: The Art of Writing a Nonfiction Book That Reads Like a Novel with Audrey Clare Farley
Audrey Clare Farley’s 8-week workshop class at Narratively Academy starts on Wednesday, October 29. Designed for writers working on book-length narrative nonfiction and memoir, students will learn how to craft nonfiction that reads like a novel with page-turning storylines, lively characters and immersive scenes.
📢 Glynnis MacNicol’s Personal Essay Workshop Saturday, October 25, 2025
In this workshop you’ll learn how to take personal experiences and use them to reflect on and/or argue a larger point.
We’ll discuss a selection of personal essays to see what works and why.
We’ll talk about the advantages of a personal essay over a reported piece and what lengths work best for different purposes.
We’ll also discuss how to pitch an idea.
Zoom link and reading will be sent out a week beforehand. 1PM-4pm ET
via Zoom, $275
📢 “Writing Desire” with Off Assignment, Led by Steve Almond, with guest authors Camille Dungy, Megha Majumdar, Sarah Manguso, & Anthony Doerr
How do we turn internal obsession into a narrative that resonates broadly? What’s the role of restraint when writing with passion? Storytelling is neither a mystical pursuit, nor a technical one. It boils down to desire. The reader is asking two essential questions when they pick up a story. First: Who do I care about? And second: What do they care about? If you make the reader shoulder what Sarah Manguso calls “the burden of hope,” they will follow you anywhere.
This intensive (but free-wheeling) series will focus on desire as an engine of literary creation. Over the five sessions of this course, we’ll focus on four potent forms of desire: obsession, sex, unrequited love, and friendship. Each week, we’ll look at examples—fiction, creative nonfiction, even some poetry—by a variety of writers that show how these subjects drive stories deeper into truth: Camille Dungy, Megha Majumdar, Sarah Manguso, & Anthony Doerr.
Dates: Mondays: November 3 - December 1, 7 - 9 p.m. EST; Price: $400 (Memoir Monday readers can use code MEMOIR20 for 20% off)
📢 From Best American Essays Editor: The Art of the Essay
Join Kim Dana Kupperman & Baron Wormser for a weekend of discussing, contemplating, and generating essays, November 14-16, 2025
📢 Call for Submissions from Raising Mothers: When the Water Was Gone — Hurricane Katrina, 20 Years Later
August marked the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It marked a turning point in my own life on what I can bear witness to.
Our newest call, and the first special call for year ten at Raising Mothers, WHEN THE WATER WAS GONE aims to examine it all—the personal, the political, the betrayal, the hope, the determination. Perhaps you were young, a budding adult. Perhaps you have stories that were passed on to you. While we are interested in first person stories, we’re also interested in conversations and stories of what that moment kindled in you, what flame you’ve borne since. Share your stories. All accepted work will be paid. Submissions close December 15.
This call is open exclusively to writers of the global majority.
📢 Call for Submissions for “Freedom Ways,” a Collaboration Between Memoir Land and Literary Liberation
Memoir Land and Literary Liberation co-publish an essay series that is now called “Freedom Ways.” Rate: $150. For submissions guidelines, deadlines and more, visit Literary Liberation. Here are the first two essays in the series:
📢 At Open Secrets: Paid Call for Submissions for Personal Essays by Humans About the Human Experience (No AI Writing Allowed)
We are looking for original, unpublished 1,000-2,500-word personal essays that explore transformative, powerful human experiences, especially those that are often kept secret or hidden.
We pay $50 for general essays. Deadline: November 30, 2025 (ET); earlier submissions have the best chance of acceptance.
Object-ives is a new column featuring rotating authors that will run on Fridays in our Stuff-ed section for flash nonfiction essays of 500-999 words about an object you own or have owned in the past. We pay $25 for Object-ives essays.
📢 Call for Contributors to an Anthology about Infidelity
Tentative title: Stepping Out: Writings on Infidelity
Editors: Susan Ostrov Weisser, author of LOVELAND: A MEMOIR OF ROMANCE AND FICTION and Nan Bauer-Maglin, editor of GRAY LOVE and LOVING ARRANGEMENTS
This essay collection explores the enduring and complex issue of infidelity in romantic relationships, a topic that remains taboo and emotionally charged despite the evolving norms around love, commitment, and sexuality. The book will feature personal essays from those with direct or thoughtful insights into infidelity, whether as participants, victims, or observers. Analytic essays approaching the topic through psychological, sociological, historical, or literary lenses are welcomed. Reprints will be considered. Please send inquiries or a 1–2-page description to both Susan at weisser@adelphi.edu and Nan at Nan.Bauermaglin99@ret.gc.cuny.edu by August 31st. Be sure to include a short note about your previous writing, your profession, and any other relevant information about yourself.
📢 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!
I am dabbing tears at my desk and trying desperately not to scream out (screams of joy, I assure you) because I am sure the folks in the surrounding cubicles would not appreciate being startled this early on a Monday. I am incredibly honored to have been included in this @Memoir Land roundup with so many amazing pieces of writing.
Best Monday ever!
I so connected to Sean Cho A's essay in the Rumpus on the power of presence in teaching. Though not a teacher in the formal sense, I am a student of the moments and spaces where everything comes together. Sari, thank you for including "Human Error is the Point" in your roundup.