Bereavement by Lauren Teller
A friend, or a date, or a stranger who spotted him lying in the street, a person brave enough to touch a seizing, unconscious man, would search Eric’s pants for...
Category: ACEs
Adverse Childhood Experiences
15 Minute Read/ACEs/Childhood/Escape/Family/Fathers/Girls & Women/Love/men/Mommy Dearest/Mothers/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction/Relationships/Society/Survival/trauma
I Am My Longing by Susan Ostrov Weisser
There were my mother’s stories, and there were my books. Books were imaginary but some books could be true; Betty’s stories were neither true nor not-true, they...
10 Minute Read/ACEs/Aging/Childhood/Family/Featured/Girls & Women/Grief/Loss/Mothers/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction/Relationships/Secrets/Sexism/Society/Survival
My Mother’s Back by Mary Zelinka
Her admission that her diagnosis was terrible news showed a vulnerability in her I had never before witnessed. I had believed that nothing ever weighed on her,...
10 Minute Read/ACEs/Childhood/Escape/Family/Fathers/Institutions/nonfiction/Refugees/Society/Survival/war
Passages by Rebecca Jung
My mother pressed her cheek to Leslie’s cold face and cried. She rocked back and forth, holding my sister’s limp body close to hers. And those Congolese women r...
#Recovery Runner Up/12 minute read/ACEs/Addiction/Childhood/Faith/Fathers/Inspirational/nonfiction/Recovery/Survival
Father Figured by Laura Carey
This flex-time rehab had been recommended to me by the same doctor who’d prescribed 100 Vicodin every two weeks for fibromyalgia. After a couple of years under ...
5 Minute Read/ACEs/Art/Being Body/Childhood/childhood sexual abuse/Family/Fathers/Girls & Women/Grief/Identity/Loss/MeToo/nonfiction/Rape Culture/Secrets/Society/Survival
Evolving Body Language:Five Photographs by Toni La Ree Bennett
My left leg is stuck out as if I was on the verge of going somewhere. My mother will meet him for the first time three months from now.
#MeToo/10 Minute Read/2018 #MeToo Selected Shortlist Essay/ACEs/Adversity/Being Body/Domestic Violence/Featured/Girls & Women/Health/Identity/Inspirational/Mental Illness/MeToo/nonfiction/Rape Culture/Relationships/Sexism/Society/Storytelling/Survival/trauma
Healing Through Storytelling by Melissa Zook
The practice of medicine is based on the physician’s ability to gather story from the patient. Our story is our human identity and our humanity. It is also the ...
#MeToo/10 Minute Read/2019 #MeToo Award Winner/ACEs/Adversity/childhood sexual abuse/Family/Girls & Women/MeToo/Rape Culture/Secrets/trauma
2019 #MeToo Essay 3rd Prize Winner: A Tale of Two Sisters by Rebecca May Hope
Since childhood sexual abuse is a risk factor for schizophrenia, I’ll always wonder what role Doug played in her plunge into insanity. I didn’t realize that the...
#MeToo/2019 #MeToo Award Winner/3 Minute Read/ACEs/Being Body/childhood sexual abuse/Escape/Family/Identity/Man in The Mirror/MeToo/PTSD/Rape Culture/Secrets/Survival/trauma
2019 #MeToo Essay 2nd Prize Winner: A Face in the Mirror by Sue Gano
In his place is a little girl with ragged clothes and a dirty face. She has my blue eyes and a cowlick that sits above the peak of her forehead. It has been a l...