Sex and the City, climate change, and our next reading line-up
Welcome back to Memoir Monday—a weekly newsletter and quarterly reading series, brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Granta, Guernica, and Literary Hub. 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.
Diaspora, Reconstructed
by Yasmeen Khan (art by Eva Azenaro Acero)
My mother’s side of the family speaks Urdu. The fragments I know of the language I learned through gossip. Sitting at the kitchen table, I watched rumors zip between my aunts like hummingbirds. I can tell you who’s gotten married or gained weight, but I can’t say I love you or please just tell me who I am.
Fitness: How the Climate Killed My Children
by Joseph Osmundson
My mother always insinuated, growing up, that couples with no babies were selfish, they cared only for themselves. My parents were both resentful of the financial ease their childless friends had, jealous of their vacations, too-large homes, new cars. Now it’s selfish to have kids, it signals we care nothing for the earth they’ll inherit.
Goodbye to All That Sex and the City
by Brittany K. Allen
I arrived in New York City with my own collection of secondhand tulle skirts and a Sex and the City poster, which I hung above my dorm fridge. Though I’d thought this choice was unique back in Maryland, I was impelled to change my tune when I immediately met a billion other girls with curly hair, clacking away on their laptops, searching for a Mr. Big. The poster became a bit of a joke; I pretended it was ironic. I told myself I was not kindred to those scores of other would-be Carries, because I was special. Meanwhile, my government teacher’s words rang in my head: Aim higher. Aim higher. Aim higher.
Letter From Beirut: After Grief, There is Rage
by Farah Aridi
I know I will not forget. I know I will not forgive. But I am unable to withstand walking on the rubble of what you once were. No, this is not you, Beirut.
Writers’ Resources
If you missed the August Memoir Monday reading, featuring Billy-Ray Belcourt, Rose Andersen, Damon Young, and Alisson Wood, you can watch the video at The Rumpus!
Register now for the September edition of the Memoir Monday reading series—featuring Athena Dixon, Sarah Kasbeer, Angela Chen, and Melissa Faliveno! After September, the series is going back to our regularly quarterly schedule—so this is your last chance to catch Memoir Monday until December.
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