Monkey Island by Dorothy Rice
At ten, it sounded way worse than what I’d imagined. Tugging the chenille bedspread close beneath my chin, I wondered how her new friend talked Tiny into it. Th...
Category: Girls & Women
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/Featured/Family/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/Divorce/Family/Funny/Girls & Women/Inspirational/Love/Memoir/men/nonfiction/Relationships
But There Were Daffodils by Marian Rogers
In a second union, things you took for granted during those years with your first spouse float in your unconscious like twigs along a clear or muddied stream, o...
Bombardment by Julie Benesh
I am over 50, feeling 70 and used to being semi-invisible in big, sexy Chicago and currently dressed for something as far from clubbing or prostitution as anyon...
10 Minute Read/Aging/Being Body/Childhood/Fathers/Girls & Women/Identity/Loss/nonfiction/personal essay/Relationships/Sexism/Society
Laguna Main by Clementine Moss
Jim Morrison lolls on the beach in my mind, and I let go of the day and follow him down to this other world. Do women get to be so free, lounging, writing, owni...
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.
7 Minute Read/Art/Being Body/Childhood/Family/Fathers/Funny/Girls & Women/Identity/Inspirational/Memory/nonfiction/Society
@clotheslinetimeline by Maud Kelly
Hell hath no fury like an 8 year old about to not get Western Barbie. Christmas was not our strong suit. Easter—that my parents could pull off. It all happens i...
5 Minute Read/Being Body/Funny/Girls & Women/Inspirational/Man in The Mirror/men/morality/nonfiction/personal essay/Sexism/Society
Hugging Gloria Steinem by Robert Bason
When the seventies arrived, I began to learn about feminism. Men could be intimidating. We were intimidating with our physical size, our attitude. I began to pi...
10 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Being Body/Domestic Violence/Featured/Girls & Women/Health/Identity/Inspirational/#MeToo/MeToo/Mental Illness/nonfiction/Rape Culture/Relationships/Sexism/Society/Storytelling/Survival/trauma/2018 #MeToo Selected Shortlist Essay
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 ...
10 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/childhood sexual abuse/Family/Girls & Women/#MeToo/MeToo/Rape Culture/Secrets/trauma/2019 #MeToo Award Winner
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...
7 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Being Body/childhood sexual abuse/Family/Food/Girls & Women/Inspirational/Loss/#MeToo/MeToo/PTSD/Rape Culture/Sexism/Survival/trauma/2019 #MeToo Award Winner
2019 #MeToo Essay 1st Prize Winner: The Fear is Real by Jules Carter
Fear is like a tattoo; it can never be washed away.
Car Date, 1972 by Stacy Pendergrast
That was all I needed to hear. I pushed aside the images of what had happened: their taunting faces, my bruises and twisted glasses, the leaves in my torn under...
10 Minute Read/Being Body/Divorce/Domestic Violence/Escape/Family/Girls & Women/Grief/Identity/Inspirational/Institutions/Loss/Love/On Memory/Recovery/trauma
What To Wear To Bankruptcy Court By By Nan McKernon
How does one find self-worth standing before the evidence of broken dreams, unrealized potential, and past mistakes? This is what plagued me as I stared at the ...
10 Minute Read/Aging/Alzheimer's/Escape/Family/Funny/Girls & Women/Love/Mental Illness/Mommy Dearest/nonfiction/trauma
When Grandma Went to Pakistan by Sheree Winslow
I’m not sure if my mistake was in joining together reality and fantasy or if I simply was treading someplace where I didn’t belong.
7 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Childhood/Escape/Family/Girls & Women/Grief/Literature/Loss/Memoir/Mommy Dearest
And Away She Goes by Renee C. Winter
Gradually Mother’s cooking faded, along with her tan. No longer in the kitchen when I rushed home from school, she’d be lounging on the cushions of our faux vel...
7 Minute Read/Aging/Being Body/Childhood/Escape/Family/Girls & Women/Grief/Health/Inspirational/Literature/Loss/Man in The Mirror/Mental Health/Mental Illness/nonfiction/PTSD/Spirituality/Survival/trauma
Savasana by Heather Gemmen Wilson
When I was slim, I communicated with my whole body in large, confident gestures; I enjoyed being front and center. But I’m no longer thin. To deal with difficul...
15 Minute Read/Cancer/Escape/Family/Funny/Girls & Women/Grief/Literature/Loss/Memoir/Mommy Dearest/nonfiction/Relationships
Anyway – A Memoir Excerpt by Barbara Tyler
His quiet Southern lilt didn’t match what he was saying. There should have been magnolia petals falling out of his mouth or some exhaustive yarn about his mothe...
Surviving With Grace by Judith P. Bullis
It is not what I expect. Lined up side by side are chairs with patients already hooked up to IVs, and one empty chair for Katie, a giant vacuum of space waiting...
12 minute read/ACEs/Adoption/Adversity/Childhood/Family/Girls & Women/Inspirational/Literature/Memoir/nonfiction/trauma
Loving My Attachment Challenged Daughter by Bari Benjamin
Liliya had been abandoned at six months by her birth mom, left in a baby carriage in a train station in Moscow. The Russian police took her to an orphanage wher...