my friend Allie Somers sent me "The Love of My Life" by Cheryl Strayed because I'm writing about my father who died recently. My mom is also gone. I couldn't stop crying reading this essay. It's a masterclass in vulnerability. https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21716-the-love-of-my-life
In Jan. one of my favorite writers, Barry Michael Cooper, died. A former music critic/journalist at The Village Voice, where he wrote a few brilliant reviews and reported pieces, he was also the screenwriter behind three features: New Jack City, Above the Rim and Sugar Hill. In 2009 he wrote an essay called "Requiem for the Zooted," about his early years as an Angel Dust addict. It was a moving, powerful piece that has stayed with me: https://barrymichaelc.medium.com/requiem-for-the-zooted-may-2009-essay-42009c417d12
I have taught "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by E.J. Levy for years and it stands the test of time. I'm astonished and delighted each time at how beautifully crafted and moving this essay is. It was a Best American Essays selection in in 2005 (Susan Orlean was guest editor). https://longreads.com/2014/07/16/mastering-the-art-of-french-cooking/
What do you like to teach about this story? I just started reading it and am taken by this heartfelt detail: “the copper gas stove whose handles glowed a soft burnished too
Every sentence is so beautifully crafted. The blend of light cultural criticism/history with Levy's personal story is perfect. It's a great piece to teach for an exercise on food writing, or looking at personal experience through the lens of food. It's a good example of a mosaic piece, and I also like that it is an LGBTQ author who speaks about accepting her sexuality.
I’m really enthralled these days by “What Color is the Sky” by Nina MacLaughlin in The Paris Review in May 2020. I love the erudite conversational style and meaningful profundity and wit and mystery and everything.
Mary Roblyn's writing is always heartfelt, raw, poignant and moving. Her latest essay is always my favorite and this one is no exception: A Letter from Loneliness on her publication Writer, Interrupted: https://open.substack.com/pub/maryroblyn/p/a-letter-from-loneliness
Also, Chicago Story Press published my first-ever lit mag essay on love, silence, and the quiet decisions that slowly pull us apart. But it’s also about what it takes to find our way back. It's called The Field Between Us and can be found here: https://chicagostorypress.substack.com/p/the-field-between-us-a-story-of-intimacy
There are many essays in Claire Dederer's 'Monsters' that I think about—and that I like immensely—but since those aren't linkable, I'll share the essay that parked the book "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" from the Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/20/art-monstrous-men/
Personal essays are the best! Subscribed to you. Mine is full of humor essays and pieces - hope you enjoy and subscribe! Nicolarosedirects.substack.com
my friend Allie Somers sent me "The Love of My Life" by Cheryl Strayed because I'm writing about my father who died recently. My mom is also gone. I couldn't stop crying reading this essay. It's a masterclass in vulnerability. https://www.thesunmagazine.org/articles/21716-the-love-of-my-life
This is insanely heart wrenching, insanely beautiful. I can’t believe I have not come across it sooner.
The Sun is just the best.
Thanks for all these great suggestions, everyone!!
I love "Once More to the Lake," by EB White. It's an oldie but a goodie about nature, time, and life. Find it here: https://genius.com/E-b-white-once-more-to-the-lake-annotated
And...
I will post my essay "Night Passage" which is available on the SCA Substack. https://open.substack.com/pub/smallcraftadvisor/p/my-first-night-passage?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3fwf9
I teach this essay in my developmental English classes. Most of my students seem to get something out of it every time.
I assume you mean E.B.'s essay! Isn't it lovely?
In Jan. one of my favorite writers, Barry Michael Cooper, died. A former music critic/journalist at The Village Voice, where he wrote a few brilliant reviews and reported pieces, he was also the screenwriter behind three features: New Jack City, Above the Rim and Sugar Hill. In 2009 he wrote an essay called "Requiem for the Zooted," about his early years as an Angel Dust addict. It was a moving, powerful piece that has stayed with me: https://barrymichaelc.medium.com/requiem-for-the-zooted-may-2009-essay-42009c417d12
I have taught "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by E.J. Levy for years and it stands the test of time. I'm astonished and delighted each time at how beautifully crafted and moving this essay is. It was a Best American Essays selection in in 2005 (Susan Orlean was guest editor). https://longreads.com/2014/07/16/mastering-the-art-of-french-cooking/
What do you like to teach about this story? I just started reading it and am taken by this heartfelt detail: “the copper gas stove whose handles glowed a soft burnished too
human pink.”
Every sentence is so beautifully crafted. The blend of light cultural criticism/history with Levy's personal story is perfect. It's a great piece to teach for an exercise on food writing, or looking at personal experience through the lens of food. It's a good example of a mosaic piece, and I also like that it is an LGBTQ author who speaks about accepting her sexuality.
Thanks for introducing me to this piece. I really admire how it follows through on the premise of cookbook as hymnal.
A reader suggested I submit this essay about my long-divorced NYC painter parents to Memoir Monday, but the guidelines prohibit images. (The piece is illuminated by their art.) https://twohouses.substack.com/p/hundreds-of-drawings-turn-up-by-my?r=nbjv0
Another essay that makes essential use of paintings and that is a must-read, really, is Ann Patchett’s, “These Precious Days” published in Harper’s about her COVID quarantine experience (and is now the title of her essay collection). https://harpers.org/archive/2021/01/these-precious-days-ann-patchett-psilocybin-tom-hanks-sooki-raphael/ I laughed so hard.
I’m really enthralled these days by “What Color is the Sky” by Nina MacLaughlin in The Paris Review in May 2020. I love the erudite conversational style and meaningful profundity and wit and mystery and everything.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/05/27/what-color-is-the-sky/
Natalia Ginzburg’s “The Little Virtues”—stayed with me all these years. I love many of her essays.
My current favorite is a Longreads essay. "Well Without Water" by Michael Fischer
Haunted by a running tap in prison, a man grows obsessed with water waste and climate change, pushing him to the edge.
https://longreads.com/2025/04/15/climate-change-water-prison-ocd/?utm_source=bd2ad42066&utm_medium=email&utm_content=t5-2025-04-18&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newspack%20Newsletter%20%28237109%29
Mary Roblyn's writing is always heartfelt, raw, poignant and moving. Her latest essay is always my favorite and this one is no exception: A Letter from Loneliness on her publication Writer, Interrupted: https://open.substack.com/pub/maryroblyn/p/a-letter-from-loneliness
Also, Chicago Story Press published my first-ever lit mag essay on love, silence, and the quiet decisions that slowly pull us apart. But it’s also about what it takes to find our way back. It's called The Field Between Us and can be found here: https://chicagostorypress.substack.com/p/the-field-between-us-a-story-of-intimacy
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2024/11/my-lunch-with-donald-sutherland.html
and
https://www.essaydaily.org/2021/06/ander-monson-on-modality.html
I love just about anything Brian Doyle wrote. Here's one: https://theamericanscholar.org/joyas-volardores/
Anything by Mimi Swartz for Texas Monthly.
There are many essays in Claire Dederer's 'Monsters' that I think about—and that I like immensely—but since those aren't linkable, I'll share the essay that parked the book "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?" from the Paris Review: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/11/20/art-monstrous-men/
My latest favorite at the Queer Love Project is by Anthony DiPietro. He does some great excavation in "The (Gay) Marrying Type" : https://queerloveproject.substack.com/p/anthony-dipietro-essay-gay-marrying-type
Personal essays are the best! Subscribed to you. Mine is full of humor essays and pieces - hope you enjoy and subscribe! Nicolarosedirects.substack.com