Monday Roundup 10/6/25: Personal Essays, Workshops, Calls for Submissions
Plus workshops from Narratively Academy, Literary Liberation, Best American Essays, an accountability program from Writing Co-Lab, a survey for memoirists, and a couple of calls for submissions.
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…*
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Essays from partner publications…
Who You Gonna Be?
by Danielle Shorr
“I joke that I could die here, in my classroom, and the university would ask who I was and how I got there. Sometimes I have dark thoughts. I don’t want to but I do. I dream about being hit by the campus shuttle, injured but not killed. My mouth waters at the thought of a potential settlement. I fantasize about objects falling, striking me unconscious, a library book jumping off its shelf and knocking me out. I dream about being hurt, just enough to get me the upward mobility in this job that I can’t get elsewhere. I don’t want to die, not at all, but I can’t help imagining how random chance could make me visible in this place where I’m otherwise invisible.”
To Get a High School Diploma, Indigenous Kids like Me Had to Leave Behind Everything They Knew
by Susan Aglukark
“Some evenings, I would hide when it was lights-out, and when the building was quiet, I would grab a notebook and go to the girls’ washroom. It was a large space—there were about a hundred girls in residence—with mustard-yellow walls, showers on one side and toilets on the other. There was one bathtub, and it was private, in its own little room, so you could close the door. I think it even had a lock. Every now and again, if I didn’t have the isolation space during the day, I would sneak into the bathroom and close the door and sit in the bathtub and write.”
Invisible at the Top
by Dianne Jacob
“While scanning the obits in The New York Times, I came across one for Jean Jennings. I read there that she was the first woman editor-in-chief of a national automotive magazine. But The Times had it wrong. I had been the first.”
My Child Does Not Love to Read, And I’m (Starting to Be) Okay With That
by Mira Ptacin
“Before motherhood, I envisioned little bookworms reciting Mary Oliver on the playground, dog-earing Beloved by age ten. Instead, I have a mini-me who cherishes skulls over paragraphs. The sting, I realized recently, was not about Theo’s abilities but about my assumptions. I wanted a carbon copy of myself. What I have is a person entirely his own.”
Essays from around the web…
Out of his Mind
by Bex O’Brian
“When my husband of nearly forty years told me last summer that he had been having an affair for the last two years, all the noise went out of my head. Between my ears was utter silence. It was a miracle. It lasted only a few seconds, but silence was something I had not experienced in more than a decade. And it was more profound and strange than the idea of my husband fucking another woman.”
50 years on, ‘Rocky Horror’ is still for us freaks and geeks
by Ethan Gilsdorf
“When I think back to seeing Rocky Horror for the first time as a shy, do-good, insecure teen, I see it as my baptism into “weird” culture, my coming out as a dork..... at that first screening, as I shouted ‘Slut!’ when anyone said ‘Janet,’ yelled ‘A**hole!’ whenever Brad’s name was mentioned, and tossed slices of toast at the screen, I felt alive..... As I watched, I was seduced by who I might become.”
How Writing Saved Me From Myself
by Emily J. Smith
“Modern womanhood is an exercise in paradoxes. We’re expected to be beautiful but not high-maintenance. Firm but not a bitch. Impressive but not threatening. Very early we’re taught to suppress our needs and our hunger in order to impress and delight, and rewarded for doing so. Women are raised to be high-achievers, but in a patriarchal society, a woman’s greatest achievement is often the destruction of her most honest self. Eating disorders fall squarely into this dance, and the sheer volume of brain power wasted on indulging an ED is heartbreaking. In a way it’s the ultimate symbol of the female paradox in patriarchy — strength in weakness, power in disappearance.”
Unraveling
by Hannah Bottigheimer
“I called her eighth-grade guidance counselor, explaining the sleepless night and asking for direction. School was out of the question, but what now? I left a message for her pediatrician while Sarah lay down in her room. Twenty minutes later, I checked on her. Her eyes opened, startled.”
A Way Out of Nowhere
by Heather Cline
“Daniel was all giggles and hops as we got ready, bursting at the seams to play outside. Meanwhile, my stomach was free-falling through a black hole. I hadn’t a clue where we were going, nor how we were going to get anywhere by walking. Besides Jay’s dad, who lived right up the hill from us, the nearest neighbor was miles away, and we didn’t have a phone to call anyone to come get us. A blanket of snow and ice stretched across the forty-acre field outside our trailer, which was encompassed by endless, rolling woods. Also, Mom was five months pregnant, and my youngest brother, William, was still wobbly on his legs.”
Canada
by Sara Eckel
“We admired the Canadians, but more than that, we envied them. As we drove through small towns, we’d marvel at the people who looked indistinguishable from Americans but who lived in a completely different universe. What would it even be like to live in a country with free healthcare and a functioning social safety net?”
Hotel in the Woods
by Jennifer Cloer
“After the pandemic and Lisa’s death, my husband and I moved to the ten acres in the country where the clearing sits beyond our fence. The walks with my dog help me to be present, but my gaze remains on the woods. Bliss—that’s my dog’s name—wants to move on and chase the birds across the hill. But I stand and stare into the forest for a moment longer and imagine Lis there, taking my hand with her palm and asking me which room will be hers in the hotel. It’s the one with the softest bed of needles, I think, the one where she can rest.”
I’ve Been in a Gay Marriage for 39 Years. Here’s What I Learned About Polyamory
by James Brooks
“Polyamory taught me that these hookups, while I probably wasn’t going to marry them, were indeed knots in a succession of knots in my own net of relations. Several of the knots would inevitably come undone, but I still wanted the net to be robust enough to continually add, subtract, and repair the knots that I wanted to repair. My husband was a knot I wanted to keep repairing, but I needed all of the net to feel connected, which it turned out is rather funny-looking—or, I guess, queer—because the knots being continually added and subtracted caused the net to keep changing in size.”
🚨Announcements:
📢 At Narratively Academy—Writing the Unspoken: Crafting Stories from Shame and Silence with Melissa Petro
Melissa Petro, author of the critically acclaimed hybrid memoir, Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, is leading Writing the Unspoken: Crafting Stories from Shame and Silence, a three-part workshop at Narratively Academy, starting this Wednesday, October 8.
📢 Final Call for Literary Liberation’s two October Workshops: Two Truths and A Lie and Years That Ask
Supriya Rakesh will lead Two Truths and A Lie—a playful and experimental workshop where you can explore how to turn lived experience into compelling fiction. Saturday, October 11 on Zoom; 20 spots available; $75
Experiment with narrative, lyric, and persona forms through generative exercises with María Fernanda in her workshop, Years That Ask. Saturday, October 18 on Zoom; 20 seat available; $150
📢 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.
📢 Writing Co-Lab’s Accountability and Coaching Program
This October, Writing Co-Lab launches The Lab, an online community accountability and coaching program designed to spark your creativity, draw you to the page, and keep you writing. For $50 a month (or $90 for two months), you get access to a generative Power Hour with Jiordan Castle, a mentoring kvetch sesh about writing and publishing with Brian Gresko called The Creative Accomplice, daily silent writing groups, a community of writers on our Discord server, and weekly emails of encouragement. We'll have occasional events and open mics as well. The Lab is a place to experiment and play, form friendships with other writers, and develop your ideas from inception to draft.
📢 Dr. Jamie Marich Seeks Memoirists to Interview for Memoir Writing as Spiritual Practice
Dr. Jamie Marich announces her collaboration with a new publisher on their next project, Memoir Writing as Spiritual Practice. Good Faith Media and their Nurturing Faith imprint is supporting Jamie in her transition to more spiritually-focused writing and creating. The aim is for a later 2026 or early 2027 release. The program where Jamie is currently attending Interfaith seminary, the Chaplaincy Institute, is also allowing her to count the writing of this book for a large portion of their internship project.
📢 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.
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Thank you so much for including my story, Unraveling in the Monday Roundup. Honored to be in the company of these accomplished writers! And special thanks to Anne Beall @ChicagoStoryPress
Thank you so much for featuring one of our essays!