A crowd-sourced "Memoir Monday" while I travel. PLUS: Workshops from Lilly Dancyger, Narratively, Melissa Petro, Blaise Allysen Kearsley; plus two calls for submissions...
How do I narrow this down?! Off the top of my head: Meghan Daum’s My Misspent Youth, Joan Didion’s Goodbye to All That, Nicole Graev Lipson’s As They Like It, Jonathan Franzen’s Perchance to Dream, Ellen Willis’ Next Year in Jerusalem, Samantha Irby’s essay on her mother (crying just thinking about it), many of Glynnis MacNicol’s essays, but especially the one on Burnout, every essay in Kelly McMasters’ The Leaving Season (can’t choose one!), the first section (long essay) of Darrin Strauss’ Half a Life, and Lucinda Rosenfeld’s true masterpiece My Adventures in Deconstruction.
Thanks for this recommendation. I have how read two essays by N.C. Happe. Such a powerful writer! Someone I'm certain we'll be hearing about more in the future.
Still thinking about Vera Kachouh's essay "War Creates Many Orphans" which literally brought me to tears (in the best way) and so expertly weaves threads of personal narrative into our current moment.
Thank you for the hype, Sari. So, SO appreciated! ❤️
Essays that stay with me that haven’t already been mentioned: Little Things Are Big by Jesús Colón; The Mechanics of Being by Jerald Walker; “Fire,” chapter one of Black Boy as a standalone, by Richard Wright; Midcentury Modern by Jacqueline Doyle; Death of Dogs by Abigail Thomas; Happy Birthday by Samantha Irby; 1986 by Alexander Chee; Cat Person and Me by Alexis Nowicki; Lost and Found by Colson Whitehead; On Believing by Hanif Abdurraqib; Vegas by Janet Steen; Widow’s Peak by Laura Mauldin; How To Write About Trauma by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh; The Fall of My Teenage Self by Zadie Smith… OK let me stop there or I’ll never stop!
Several stay with me - Time and Distance Overcome by Eula Biss; Fourth State of Matter by JoAnn Beard; What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind by Jennifer Senior; The Unmothered by Ruth Margalit; All About My Mother by Meghan Daum;
the whole of Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman; also love Philip Lopate and Roger Rosenblatt but no one essay stands out from their long lists.
How do I narrow this down?! Off the top of my head: Meghan Daum’s My Misspent Youth, Joan Didion’s Goodbye to All That, Nicole Graev Lipson’s As They Like It, Jonathan Franzen’s Perchance to Dream, Ellen Willis’ Next Year in Jerusalem, Samantha Irby’s essay on her mother (crying just thinking about it), many of Glynnis MacNicol’s essays, but especially the one on Burnout, every essay in Kelly McMasters’ The Leaving Season (can’t choose one!), the first section (long essay) of Darrin Strauss’ Half a Life, and Lucinda Rosenfeld’s true masterpiece My Adventures in Deconstruction.
Best ever? Jo Ann Beard’s Fourth State of Matter
Best braided essay ever.
Adding CJ Hauser's The Crane Wife
This recent essay in Longreads by N.C Happe will stay with me for a long, long time: https://longreads.com/2025/05/15/child-predator-minnesota-summer-camp/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Thanks for this recommendation. I have how read two essays by N.C. Happe. Such a powerful writer! Someone I'm certain we'll be hearing about more in the future.
“My Family’s Slave” by Alex Tizon
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/
“Lost Cat” by Mary Gaitskill
https://granta.com/lost-cat/
“The Ayis Who Passed Through My Childhood” by (yours truly) Yi Xue
https://immigrantsjourney.substack.com/p/the-ayis-who-passed-through-my-childhood
Still thinking about Vera Kachouh's essay "War Creates Many Orphans" which literally brought me to tears (in the best way) and so expertly weaves threads of personal narrative into our current moment.
thanksgiving in mongolia by ariel levy
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/18/thanksgiving-in-mongolia !!!!!!
emily goulds whole ouvre but start here https://www.thecut.com/article/marriage-divorce-should-i-leave-my-husband-emily-gould.html
Yes, and yes.
Lydina Yuknavitch, Woven. Guernica, 2015. https://www.guernicamag.com/woven/
I love this essay, Cold Comfort, How I Learned to Love Cold-Water Swimming by Asya Graf. It has so many braided themes and such beautiful language.
https://opensecretsmagazine.com/p/eco-grief-climate-change-cold-water-swimming
Thank you for the hype, Sari. So, SO appreciated! ❤️
Essays that stay with me that haven’t already been mentioned: Little Things Are Big by Jesús Colón; The Mechanics of Being by Jerald Walker; “Fire,” chapter one of Black Boy as a standalone, by Richard Wright; Midcentury Modern by Jacqueline Doyle; Death of Dogs by Abigail Thomas; Happy Birthday by Samantha Irby; 1986 by Alexander Chee; Cat Person and Me by Alexis Nowicki; Lost and Found by Colson Whitehead; On Believing by Hanif Abdurraqib; Vegas by Janet Steen; Widow’s Peak by Laura Mauldin; How To Write About Trauma by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh; The Fall of My Teenage Self by Zadie Smith… OK let me stop there or I’ll never stop!
My pleasure, and thanks for all the great recs!! 🙏🏻💝
Anything by Judith Hannah Weiss.
Several stay with me - Time and Distance Overcome by Eula Biss; Fourth State of Matter by JoAnn Beard; What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind by Jennifer Senior; The Unmothered by Ruth Margalit; All About My Mother by Meghan Daum;
the whole of Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman; also love Philip Lopate and Roger Rosenblatt but no one essay stands out from their long lists.