Passenger Trains and Other Forbidden Loves by Jonathan Odell
People are quick to ask me when I discovered I was gay, like one day I got a registered letter in the mail. Or maybe they are fishing for a steamy sex story exp...
Category: Memoir
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...
Trigger warning/3 Minute Read/Featured/Literature/Loss/Memoir/Mental Health/Mental Illness/morality/nonfiction/personal essay/Pushcart Prize Nominations/Science/Society/Suicide
Dead Weight by Claire O’Brien
I’ve been to thousands of death scenes. I knew what your family would say even before they found you. I know you’re the third suicide that this firefighter has ...
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...
Trigger warning/Make Me Cry/7 Minute Read/ACEs/Addiction/Adversity/Escape/Featured/Family/Fathers/Literature/Loss/Memoir/Mental Illness/nonfiction/Relationships/Survival/trauma
Drowning by Natasha Williams
He was disheveled and smelled like cooked grease and cigarettes. It was an odor I associated with his being poor and hemmed in. There was so much about our life...
3 Minute Read/ACEs/Addiction/Adversity/Childhood/Escape/Featured/Fathers/Grief/Loss/Memoir/nonfiction/trauma
Frankenstein’s Daughter by Sherry Shahan
Maybe I should tell her that Daddy drives with his knees while poking triangle holes in beer cans? Or that he once fell out his car door while rounding a corner...
5 Minute Read/Adversity/Being Body/Childhood/Featured/Gender Non-conforming/Girls & Women/Identity/LGBTQ/Memoir/nonfiction/Secrets/Society
Why Do People Kiss? by Ashley Burke
Our Spanish teacher is not allowed to teach us anymore. This is because she kissed a woman and in our tiny Catholic school, this is against our policy. Theresa ...
Healing/Black Memoirs Matter/Featured/Identity/Institutions/Justice/Literature/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/morality/nonfiction/Parenting/Society
Ashes of American Flags by Justin Florey
Maybe history doesn’t really change at all and we’re just actors reincarnated in different costumes. In this particular production, Floyd has become Black Jesu...
Travel/3 Minute Read/Art/Black Memoirs Matter/Environmental/Featured/Flash/Institutions/Justice/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/Race Matters/Society
She Stares at Me by Piia Mustamäki
“Up to 95 percent of Africa’s cultural heritage is held outside Africa by major museums. France alone holds 90,000 sub-Saharan African objects in its museums,” ...
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...
SHOT-GUN SUCKS by Nicole M. Wolverton
My mother drove a blue Volkswagen bug that sounded like a dying jet engine filled with marbles. My childhood is marked by a long succession of clunker cars that...
3 Minute Read/ACEs/Divorce/Escape/Fathers/Food/Girls & Women/Grief/Identity/Loss/Memoir/Mental Health/nonfiction/Sexism/trauma
Panama, 1994, The Jungle by Mishele Maron
As a girl coming-of-age in the late 1980’s, I was told I could go anywhere and be anything I wanted to be, but of course, no one could tell me how to do this, o...
10 Minute Read/ACEs/Art/Childhood/Domestic Violence/Family/Inspirational/Literature/Memoir/nonfiction/On Writing/Parenting/personal essay/Secrets/Society/writing
Beautiful, Disturbing, True by Heather Caliri
But senior year, Katie’s talent moved from talent to sorcery. She drew what was real and unimaginable. Where did she get these ideas? How did she dare to put th...
The Memoir Prize Winner/Dementia/Make Me Cry/5 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Alzheimer's/Black Memoirs Matter/Childhood/Family/Fathers/Inspirational/Loss/Memoir/Mental Illness/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction
An Excerpt from The View From Breast Pocket Mountain by Karen Hill Anton
A memoir in the finest sense of the genre! An easy read, packed with astonishing events that flow into one another like water, The View From Breast Pocket Mount...
Hats and Newspapers by Kathryn Curto
My father called me names, made me cry, and one time even threw my plate of Easter frittata at the wall because he said I was being fresh. But he was the best n...
15 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Craft Essays/Featured/Family/Girls & Women/Identity/Immigrants/Inspirational/Literature/Love/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/Memory/Mommy Dearest/Mothers/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction/On Writing/On Memory/Parenting/personal essay/Race Matters/Regret/Relationships/Sexism/Society/Survival/trauma
How 90 Day Fiancé Helped Me Tell My Story as the Child of a Mail Order Bride by Katya Suvorova
I don’t have a mom who fell in love how I was able to fall in love. My mother is a survivor in a way most Americans won’t ever understand. I am honored to be th...