Time for Your Weekly Dose of Personal Essays...
Plus several announcements about events, workshops, and a writing retreat.
Welcome to Memoir Land—a newsletter edited by
, now featuring three 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, and Electric Literature. Below is this week’s curation.
First Person Singular, featuring original personal essays. Recently I published “The Story of My Father’s Hands” by
. A new essay is coming Wednesday.
*Submissions are currently paused for First Person Singular. I’ll do a limited submission period later this fall. Stay tuned…*
The Lit Lab, featuring interviews and essays on craft and publishing, plus writing prompts and exercises. It is primarily for paid subscribers. Recently I posted “The Prompt-O-Matic #3,” the latest in that writing prompt series.
Essays from partner publications…
Why I Couldn’t Stop Thinking About ‘Kony 2012’
by Emma Madden
“I was 16 when Kony 2012 was released. I remember watching as the video took over my Facebook feed one night after school, convinced that this would be a defining moment for my generation. Countless others felt the same way. Then the tide turned just as quickly. The astronomically successful video became a disaster, and faded into obsolescence. A decade later, as the video still lingered in people’s memories, I wanted to take a look at whether Kony had had an impact at all, as well as where it stood with the people who created it.”
The Soundscape of War
by Ada Wordsworth
“I moved to Kharkiv, the embattled second city of Ukraine, in autumn of 2022, one month after the surrounding area’s liberation. I had founded a small charity to help restore war-damaged buildings in the spring of that year, and we planned to begin repair work in the heavily shelled surrounding villages. Kharkiv still felt as though it were sleepwalking, nobody quite believing that the horrors might have partially subsided.”
What is it Really Like Inside a Sensory Deprivation Tank?
by Athena Dixon
“In the tank, I mull over the word deprivation. How it ends softly at the purse of my lips and what it means. An act or instance of withholding or taking something away from some-one or something. I am withholding the weight of my body. I have taken away my sight. I am trying to forget the pressure of being.”
Joan Didion, Meet Seema Patel
by Kelsey Shelton
“It’s a circumstance we think we can ignore out of our lives, the dissolution of our friendships. I was confronted by many fears at once: aging, loneliness, having to share those that mean the most to me. I started to understand the imaginary pressure everyone feels to get tied down. We’re all so lonely, why wouldn’t you always be on the hunt for a person to spend all your time with? Someone who asks you about your day, someone to hang out with, someone who validates you? Why wouldn’t you go out with the sole intention of finding the love of your life when our lives are devoid of it?”
The Aswang and Me
by
“The aswang is a figure in Filipino folklore who, by most accounts, is a woman by day (either stunning or a spinster) and a bloodsucker by night. She preys on babies, the sick, and men. This is me reappropriating a character who is an invention of colonizers, meant to warn people against the autonomy and power of Filipina women. Especially brujas, or witches.”
Pool of Faith
by
“Small, earthly, and sinful. I am all of those things, but here I am buoyant and unencumbered. Not bound by gravity or guilt. Mind blank, body unclenched. Outside, I am capable of parceling out my own shame; here, no men in cassocks carry out that terrifying deed.”
I Changed My Mind About Reading Problematic Male Authors
by Amanda Perry
“That year, I entered university and began dating for the first time, matching up with an international student who was older than me and a bit aloof but good looking enough to erase my days as a high school nerd. After six months of lukewarm coupledom and the unromantic shedding of my virginity, he informed me that he was reuniting, long distance, with a woman in the Netherlands he had met during an exchange. High on Milan Kundera, I did not take this as my cue to leave.”
The Story of My Father’s Hands
by
“I wondered how much his students knew about him. I wondered if they ever noticed that his hand and his arms were a little stiff. Did they know the story of the day he got burned? After that day I ate Flintstones Vitamins from the kitchen cupboard like they were candy and secretly checked on my dad every time he’d lie down for a nap. I’d tiptoe into his room to make sure he was breathing, look for the rise and fall of his chest, listen for snoring. Or I’d squint in the half-light of the doorframe, see his scarred elbow on the arm draped across his face and watch for an involuntary twitch of his hand.”
Essays from around the web…
What Will We Do For Fun Now?
by
“I’m out to dinner with my dad and my uncle David, one of the friends my parents came to America with and my godfather. The conversation turns, as it still does, to the war. Uncle David’s telling us about the day a bomb fell in his back garden when he was twelve…’I flew straight up from my bed, and when I came down the ceiling came down with me.’…He dips his battered fish in vinegar, then takes a bite…’A bomb fell in your back garden?’ I say. ‘That must have been traumatizing.’ I’ve never used this word with my parents or aunties and uncles before. I’m experimenting…”
He Was Just Here
by Patricia Harney
“The soundtrack of the day suddenly muted. The hum of the refrigerator quieted, and the noise from the street disappeared. No matter how thunderous a calamity, breaking news of disaster always sounds like silence. Then, I dropped the phone as my scream rang through the room. In the next instant, I silenced my scream and took the phone back into my hand.”
Walking Brittany home: How my wife’s cancer changed my understanding of death
by Devin Faraci
“With all of this in mind, I made a promise to myself in early January: Whatever happened, I would not leave Brittany to face this alone….’We’re all just walking each other home,’ spiritual teacher Ram Dass said, and I took that to heart. I was going to walk Brittany home…My father had warned me that no matter what, no matter how many hours I had spent turning the events over in my mind, no matter how much I had storyboarded the last act of her life, the actual moment of death was going to be a shock…He was right.” (h/t
)Wallaby to the Rescue
by Shigeko Ito
“Not so long ago, during my son's high school years, his emotional volatility overlapped with my menopausal irritability, and our house became ground zero for an adolescent versus menopausal Battle Royale. I was a sleep-deprived hot mess, incapable of sound decision-making. That was when the image of a soft, cuddly pet wallaby began to increasingly tempt me.”
🚨Announcements:
📢 Calling all book lovers: Electric Literature is hosting a masquerade!
This year we’re celebrating haunted houses in literature, and paying homage to Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Join us, and hosts Hilary Leichter and Morgan Jerkins, for a spooky night of partying, drinking, and dancing with the literary community!
The ticket price is $75 and includes an open bar, free haunted house books, and free masks. At Littlefield, Brooklyn, NY, Friday, October 27, 2023
Cocktail hour from 8 – 9pm. Dancing from 9 – 11pm. The dress code is red or black festive attire.
📢 Submissions for ’s second annual Memoir Prize are open now.
“Through Thursday, November 30, 2023, Narratively is accepting entries for our 2023 Memoir Prize. We’re on the hunt for revealing and emotional first-person nonfiction narratives from unique and overlooked points of view. The winning submission will receive a $3,000 prize and publication on Narratively.”
📢 Writing Co-Lab has some new classes on offer…
Writing Co-Lab provides dynamic online classes and workshops in every genre to deepen your craft, sharpen your publishing acumen, and ignite your imagination. Writing Co-Lab is cooperatively owned and run by teaching artists, so up to 90% of your tuition goes directly to the instructor. With free open mic nights, early morning writing clubs, and faculty “ask me anything” sessions, Writing Co-Lab is committed to fostering community inside and outside the classroom. We have upcoming classes taught by acclaimed writers like Edgar Gomez, Bushra Rehman, Omer Friedlander, Natasha Oladokun, Kyle Dillon Hertz, Mila Jaroneic, Amy Shearn, and Alexandra Watson. Check out our full class listings and come write with us!
📢 The Resort writing community is hosting its first IN-PERSON retreat for writers!
Come to Your Senses, facilitated by Resort founder Catherine LaSota, is designed to be an inspiring weekend in NYC on Nov 18-19, 2023 (no overnight accommodations included). For two days, get nourished and reconnect to your creativity with chef-prepared food, soothing acupuncture, art viewing, craft making, lots of generative writing prompts, and more, all in the beautiful plant-filled Resort headquarters. This retreat is open to all genres and experience levels and is limited to eight participants. Registration closes on November 3, 2023. Find out more and sign up here.
📢 Contributing editor is offering an online Music & Memoir Writing Workshop November 7th from 7-8:30 pm EST.
“Whether your goal is to write a personal essay, a book, or simply unlock your creativity, writers of all levels will have the opportunity to write and share their stories using music as a portal for inspiration. The goal is that participants will leave feeling empowered by their own stories regardless of whether they decide to share them and that the workshop will foster a love of storytelling.” All levels welcome.
$55 regular fee, $40 early registration—sign up by Oct 24th Register by emailing starinawrites@gmail.com. Zoom link provided after payment is received.
📢 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.
The name of the author, and the author’s Twitter handle.
A paragraph or a few lines from the piece that will most entice readers.
Because of data limits for many email platforms, going forward we will only include artwork from our partner publications. No need to send art.
*Please be advised, however, 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.
You can also support Memoir Monday—and indie bookstores!—by browsing this Bookshop.org list of every book that’s been featured at the Memoir Monday reading series. It’s a great place to find some new titles to add to your TBR list!