What Have Been Your Favorite Personal Essays Lately—Or Ever?

A crowd-sourced edition of "Memoir Monday."

Readers,

As I mentioned in last week’s “Memoir Monday” roundup, I spent a few days at a writing retreat in bed with norovirus, ugh, and was short on time to read personal essays. So I thought this might be a good opportunity for another “open thread,” in which I invite all of you to comment with the personal essays that have moved YOU the most—recently, or ever. It went well when I did this in December, and so I thought I’d try it again. (Maybe I’ll do this as an occasional feature.)

So, in the comments tell me:

What have been your favorite personal essays lately? What are your all-time favorite essays, published at any time? Include the titles, author names, and publications associated with each of them, and if there’s a link you can share, please add that, too. You can share as many as you want. ***If you’d like to include one personal essay of your own, make sure you also include at least one by someone else.

Thanks for filling in for me this week! I’ll be back January 27th with another regular edition of the Memoir Monday weekly personal essay roundup.

- Sari Botton

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🚨Announcements:

📢 April 27-May1, Attend Amy Shearn and Diana Friedman’s “The Motherlode Retreat”…

Delve into the heart of your matrilineal story at The Motherlode Retreat, a transformative five-day writing experience in the tranquil foothills of Pennsylvania’s Poconos. The Motherlode Retreat is for writers of all levels looking to explore their complex relationships with their mothers. Through facilitated discussions, generative prompts, and craft workshops, we’ll examine themes like the mother wound, inherited narratives, and how to transform personal experiences into powerful writing. Whether you're crafting fiction, memoir, poetry, or plays, this retreat provides a safe, supportive space to deepen your writing and bring your stories to life. Via Pyrenean Writing Retreats.

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📢 Call for Submissions for a Collaboration Between Memoir Land and Literary Liberation

Memoir Land and Literary Liberation will co-publish an essay series called “Writing A Liberatory Practice.” Rate: $150. For submissions guidelines, deadlines and more, visit Literary Liberation.

📢 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:

1. The title of the essay and a link to it.

2. The name of the author and, (NEW) the author’s Bluesky Handle.

3. A paragraph or a few lines from the piece that will most entice readers.

4. 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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