A crowd-sourced edition of "Memoir Monday" after a week of traveling. PLUS: Announcements from Literary Liberation, Writing our Lives, Electric Literature, Narratively, and Alex Alberto...
I'll drop in here as I can (still en route to home after vacation) with some of my favs. Right now I'll add this piece by Alexander Chee, that has always stuck with me: https://longreads.com/2015/06/18/mr-and-mrs-b-2/
I'm always moved by the essay Total Eclipse, by Annie Dillard. I read it over and over. Originally published in her wonderful book, Teaching a Stone to Talk, it was recently republished in her anthology, Abundance,
A Wrong Turn in Mississippi by Nabil Ayers in The New York Times’ Episode section blew me away. After reading it I started listening to his podcast about family, Identified, and am looking forward to reading his memoir. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/style/a-wrong-turn-in-mississippi.html
What we owe and are owed by Kiese Laymon published in Vox. His words stuck with me, "Family can help us repair. Family, chosen and by birth, can also significantly aid in helping those who eat our suffering effectively wipe us off the face of the Earth. Repair what you helped break, my Grandmama taught me. Restore what responsibly loved you, I learned from Gunn. And revise, revise, revise with your family and friends. Collective freedom is impossible without interpersonal repair."
"The Way She Closed the Door" by Miriam Toews is one of my all-time favorite personal essays. It's hard to describe, but it's kind of about a lot of things that I relate to about writing, walking, being a woman. I also love the title. I had it in mind when I titled a recent essay, "How She Suffered."
"Another evening, I walked for miles on the river, feeling embarrassed about everything, specifically about writing, about being a person who moved words around, trying to make something. I mean, it was all so embarrassing, and it had to do with being a grandmother, a mother, a useless daughter who got exasperated trying to take care of her old mother, and was afflicted with this need to write things down." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/14/the-way-she-closed-the-door
My two all-time favorites are David Foster Wallace's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," and Judith Padow's "Prequel" (Dogwood, Spring 2024).
Thanks for this, Sari. A stand-out for me here on Substack was @rebeccagoodall's piece from October on saving a young girl from a swollen river during Storm Helene, titled 'Somebody save me'. No paywall:
K Chiucarello's piece, "In the Five," on domestic partner violence + written through the framework of listening to their 9-1-1 tapes, is heartbreaking and I've never forgotten it: https://longleafreview.com/k-chiucarello/
I shared Sara Eliza Johnson's essay, "Xenomorph," on personal trauma and the film "Alien" on Bluesky recently and folks really connected with it; I think there's a natural impulse to find links between film and personal experience and Bright Wall/Dark Room publishes a lot of writing in that vein: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2019/05/06/xenomorph-alien-1979/
Hanif Abdurraqib's essay, "Fall Out Boy Forever," interweaving his own experiences of grief with the career trajectory of the band Fall Out Boy, is easily one of the best things I've read in my entire life. (That one's in his book "They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us.")
John Green's book "The Anthropocene Reviewed" contains a bunch of personal essays written through the lens of a review of some specific aspect of the world we live in and his experience of it -- everything from Halley's Comet to Our Capacity For Wonder. Here's a taste of it via a "review" of The Internet: https://slate.com/technology/2021/05/john-green-anthropocene-reviewed-excerpt-internet.html
And I'm sure I'm far from the first writer to say it, but Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That." I remember reading it for the first time and just FEELING something inside me shifting, like the me who finished reading the piece was different than the me I had been when I started :')
I'll drop in here as I can (still en route to home after vacation) with some of my favs. Right now I'll add this piece by Alexander Chee, that has always stuck with me: https://longreads.com/2015/06/18/mr-and-mrs-b-2/
If you're not yet familiar with Sarah Miller's work, you're in for a treat. Here's one I think about often. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/the-hockey-sister
The swimming pool scene!
I'm always moved by the essay Total Eclipse, by Annie Dillard. I read it over and over. Originally published in her wonderful book, Teaching a Stone to Talk, it was recently republished in her anthology, Abundance,
Oh, yes. A favorite of mine, too.
Me too yes!
A Wrong Turn in Mississippi by Nabil Ayers in The New York Times’ Episode section blew me away. After reading it I started listening to his podcast about family, Identified, and am looking forward to reading his memoir. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/07/style/a-wrong-turn-in-mississippi.html
I’ll check it out. Thanks, Rachel.
What we owe and are owed by Kiese Laymon published in Vox. His words stuck with me, "Family can help us repair. Family, chosen and by birth, can also significantly aid in helping those who eat our suffering effectively wipe us off the face of the Earth. Repair what you helped break, my Grandmama taught me. Restore what responsibly loved you, I learned from Gunn. And revise, revise, revise with your family and friends. Collective freedom is impossible without interpersonal repair."
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/22419450/kiese-laymon-justice-fairness-black-america
This one by Sheree L Greer in the Bellevue Lit Review is beautiful and weaves together so many different pieces in such a graceful way—If You Scared, Say You Scared: https://blreview.org/nonfiction/if-you-scared-say-you-scared/
Such a beautiful story, thank you.
"The Way She Closed the Door" by Miriam Toews is one of my all-time favorite personal essays. It's hard to describe, but it's kind of about a lot of things that I relate to about writing, walking, being a woman. I also love the title. I had it in mind when I titled a recent essay, "How She Suffered."
"Another evening, I walked for miles on the river, feeling embarrassed about everything, specifically about writing, about being a person who moved words around, trying to make something. I mean, it was all so embarrassing, and it had to do with being a grandmother, a mother, a useless daughter who got exasperated trying to take care of her old mother, and was afflicted with this need to write things down." https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/14/the-way-she-closed-the-door
Oh, someone else just mentioned Miriam Toews to me. I’ll check it out. Thanks!
Miriam Toews is wonderful!
Definitely opened this thread up to say “The Fourth State of Matter” by Jo Ann Beard before I saw your note, Sari! Also love Jenisha Watts' "Jenisha From Kentucky,” which was published in The Atlantic last year (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/10/family-addiction-drugs-kentucky-new-york/675113/), and Naomi Gordon-Loebl's "To the Woman Whose Shoulder I Slept On from New York to Boston" in Off Assignment is great, too (https://www.offassignment.com/articles/naomi-gordon-loebl).
Thank you, Jesse!
Ann Patchett's "This is The Story of a Happy Marriage in the book by the same name, 2013, Harper-Perennial
I was just about to add this. One of the best.
My two all-time favorites are David Foster Wallace's "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," and Judith Padow's "Prequel" (Dogwood, Spring 2024).
Body Language by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich broke open gender for me and I'll forever be grateful for it!
https://harpers.org/archive/2019/12/body-language-genderqueerness/
Thank you. I’m a fan, so excited to check it out.
Thanks for this, Sari. A stand-out for me here on Substack was @rebeccagoodall's piece from October on saving a young girl from a swollen river during Storm Helene, titled 'Somebody save me'. No paywall:
https://substack.com/@rebeccagoodall/p-149842451
Sounds great. Thank you!
I discovered this incredible eulogy written by the author Jennifer Barnett for her father BEFORE he was dead entitled "An Early Eulogy For My Dad Because He Can’t Wait" was one of the funniest things I'd read in a long time, and reminded me that using your true voice can look like whatever the h*ll you want and still connect you with people. It's hilarious and kind of reminded me a bit of my youth so here it is: https://open.substack.com/pub/stroopwaffled/p/an-early-eulogy-for-my-dad-because?r=ujcxo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
I love Jennifer's work. Thanks.
"The Day I Ran Over George Michael" has made me a fan of Sue ever since ~ https://everyoneelseistaken.substack.com/p/the-day-i-ran-over-george-michael
David Frum's beautiful essay in The Atlantic about the death of his daughter and the dog she left behind moved me to tears:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/05/david-frum-miranda-daughter-grief/677815/
A piece I wrote about friendship and loss appeared today in We Are Proud Aging Women. Colorado 2020. I think you might enjoy it.
https://agingwomenblog.com/colorado-2020-a-story-of-loss/
Nice.
Oh, so many!
K Chiucarello's piece, "In the Five," on domestic partner violence + written through the framework of listening to their 9-1-1 tapes, is heartbreaking and I've never forgotten it: https://longleafreview.com/k-chiucarello/
I love literally all of Ross Gay's Book of Delights -- here are two in The Rumpus on clotheslines and the moon: https://therumpus.net/2023/09/12/from-the-book-of-more-delights/
I shared Sara Eliza Johnson's essay, "Xenomorph," on personal trauma and the film "Alien" on Bluesky recently and folks really connected with it; I think there's a natural impulse to find links between film and personal experience and Bright Wall/Dark Room publishes a lot of writing in that vein: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2019/05/06/xenomorph-alien-1979/
Hanif Abdurraqib's essay, "Fall Out Boy Forever," interweaving his own experiences of grief with the career trajectory of the band Fall Out Boy, is easily one of the best things I've read in my entire life. (That one's in his book "They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us.")
John Green's book "The Anthropocene Reviewed" contains a bunch of personal essays written through the lens of a review of some specific aspect of the world we live in and his experience of it -- everything from Halley's Comet to Our Capacity For Wonder. Here's a taste of it via a "review" of The Internet: https://slate.com/technology/2021/05/john-green-anthropocene-reviewed-excerpt-internet.html
Richard Scott Larson's essay on what the movie Halloween taught him about queerness is such a powerful statement on finding ourselves in unexpected places: https://electricliterature.com/what-halloween-taught-me-about-queerness/
And I'm sure I'm far from the first writer to say it, but Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All That." I remember reading it for the first time and just FEELING something inside me shifting, like the me who finished reading the piece was different than the me I had been when I started :')
OMG, given my books, I can’t believe *I* forgot to mention Goodbye to All That!!! Thanks for all these great recs.
Richard turned that essay into a memoir, The Long Hallway. It's wonderful!
Yes! I featured him here: https://memoirland.substack.com/p/the-memoir-land-author-questionnaire-f5b
One of my favorite books of the year! :)