Old With Jokes by Leanne Grabel
Something wonderful has happened since I turned 70. Really. I got in my skin. I finally got in. I mean, I’ve been trying to get in my skin for years. But there ...
Category: Inspirational
3 Minute Read/Aliens/Food/Identity/Immigrants/Inspirational/Literature/Loss/Love/Memoir/Memory/nonfiction/On Writing/On Memory/Storytelling/writing
Sourdough, Ancestors, and Other Recipes for Time Travel by Edvige Giunta
Memoir is about absence, emptiness; it’s about crossing divides–of time, space, language, and that ultimate divide between the living and the dead. It’s standin...
One Day/7 Minute Read/10 Minute Read/Family/Food/Identity/Inspirational/Man in The Mirror/nonfiction
Two Brothers’ Hunger by Derek Pezo
I nodded, feeling my heart quicken at the familiar topic, but Brother’s approach was gentle, unlike the interrogative nature of others when questioning my futur...
First and Last Easter by S. Severin
First Easter It was our first Easter together. I was in a good mood, springtime in Chicago can do that to a person. The Easter displays were up and I decided t...
Misconstrued by Karen DeBonis
In the beginning. My father married my mother and they begat six children, loving each of us unconditionally. Dad played the organ at church, Mom sa...
The Memoir Prize Winner/Asian American Pacific Islander/Contests and Prizes/Immigrants/Inspirational/Memoir/The Memoir Prize for Books
The 2024 Memoir Prize Winners
Groundbreaking, Innovative, Cathartic, Transformative: A new crop of memoirs masterfully weaves the historical, the present, and the personal. This year we pres...
Healing/COVID/7 Minute Read/Adversity/Black Memoirs Matter/Escape/Featured/Family/Grief/Identity/Inspirational/Justice/Literature/Loss/nonfiction/Race Matters/Society
How Can Black People Go Camping at a Time Like This? by Debra Stone
We bought the trailer after Trump became president, a safety net, in the probability of needing a means of escape. Maybe Canada then on to Cuba? At least it eas...
Dementia/Make Me Cry/10 Minute Read/Aging/Alzheimer's/Featured/Family/Grief/Inspirational/Loss/Memoir/Memory/On Memory/Parenting
Vigil by Shirlee Jellum
*Featured Artwork by Tara Koger/Columbus Community Deathcare “…when the time comes to let it go…” —Mary Oliver I Outside the door I linger, close my eyes, breat...
5 Minute Read/Doctors/Featured/Inspirational/Institutions/Man in The Mirror/Medicine/Memoir/nonfiction/Society/Storytelling/trauma
Along Came Bobby by Jordan Midgley
Every now and again, Bobby will call me, or I’ll call him. We talk about politics, drama, scandal, funny stories, old friends, his son’s service in the Navy, my...
The Sweetness of His Breath by Kristen Lambertin
My son looked so small in the hospital bed. “Will this change my life? Will I still be able to play soccer?” he asked. “Yes and yes,” I said, “but not necess...
Make Me Cry/3 Minute Read/Adoption/Featured/Grief/Inspirational/Justice/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/morality/Mothers/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction/Parenting/PTSD/Race Matters/Society
Atlantic Terminal 2015 by Tanya E. Friedman
The child whose hand I held, my daughter whose brown skin matched the boys and the police and not my whiteness: I lifted her, not to see the scene, but the oppo...
7 Minute Read/Childhood/Featured/Funny/Gender Non-conforming/Girls & Women/Identity/Inspirational/LGBTQ/Literature/Love/nonfiction/Sexism/Society
Hearts Are Public By Lola Kelly
“People can have crushes just on boys or just on girls???… Why? How does it work? What’s wrong with-” “There is NOTHING wrong with them! Don’t say that!” ...
Trigger warning/3 Minute Read/Featured/Identity/Inspirational/LGBTQ/Literature/Man in The Mirror/Memory/Regret/Relationships/Society/Suicide
Waiting on the Stair by Jonathan Odell
This was 1972 and gay sex was definitely taboo. Not only was it against the law, the president of the university, a rabid segregationist, also hated queers. He ...
5 Minute Read/Aging/Escape/Featured/Faith/Family/Fathers/Food/Grief/Identity/Inspirational/Institutions/Loss/Love/Memoir/nonfiction/Religion/Storytelling
Pesach 5770 by Deborah Adelman
On this night, I have to beg permission from the hospital authorities to let you leave so you can join the Seder...I don’t look up to the heavens when I am on t...
Asian American Pacific Islander/Adversity/Childhood/Featured/Family/Funny/Girls & Women/Immigrants/Inspirational/Literature/Mental Health/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction/Parenting/Relationships/trauma
My Korean Therapist by Joan Sung
Dr. Joy is the best therapist ever. She acknowledges my feelings around generational trauma and my fractured relationship with my Korean Tiger Mom.
Asian American Pacific Islander/7 Minute Read/Adversity/Childhood/Featured/Family/Food/Identity/Immigrants/Incarceration/Inspirational/Literature/Loss/nonfiction/Race Matters/Survival
Strawberry Mud by Shizue Seigel
My grandparents raised peas, lettuce, and cantaloupe on a 140-acre seaside ranch since 1915, but they could not buy the land, only lease it. Unlike European imm...
Healing/10 Minute Read/Art/Environmental/Featured/Grief/Inspirational/Loss/Memory/nonfiction/personal essay/Society/Storytelling/trauma/war
Sorrow Shared: Rituals. by Anneke Campbell
As we reach a million COVID deaths in the USA and counting, how do we mourn such a large loss as a country? How do we hold all those families who are coping wit...
5 Minute Read/Divorce/Featured/Faith/Grief/Inspirational/Loss/Love/Memoir/men/Mental Illness/Relationships/Religion/trauma
A Trip to Trust by Catherine Vance
The altar is a yellow pine table, an unadorned platform for the laying out of grief and slivers of hope. It befits the geography of these mountains. It’s mess...
7 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Childhood/Divorce/Featured/Fathers/Funny/Grief/Identity/Inspirational/Literature/Loss/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/morality/nonfiction/Society/trauma
The Peppermint Kid by Jeff Veazey
In short order, I went from liar to thief. I took my brother's silver dollar collection. No one spent old silver dollars, so when I tried, the manager of the 7...
12 minute read/Being Body/Identity/Inspirational/Loss/Love/Man in The Mirror/Memory/nonfiction/Spirituality/war
Finding Me at Gettysburg by Rich Strack
*Featured Artwork by Mark Hurtubise I never met anyone I thought was crazy. Until the day I met myself. I was lying on the couch nodding off into an afternoon n...