Wish You Were Here by Sam Watermeier
By morning, there were no pauses left to count. The winter chill crept into the room as Dad lay lifeless.
Category: Memoir
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...
10 Minute Read/Girls & Women/Institutions/Justice/LGBTQ/Literature/Memoir/nonfiction/Rape Culture/Sexism/Society
Three Women Walk into a Bar By Annie Krabbenschmidt
As a gay woman, I have acquired a quick bar banter that cuts men loose before they can get my name. In response to their drunken prattling, I cut to the chase. ...
15 Minute Read/Family/Grief/Inspirational/Loss/Love/Memoir/nonfiction/On Memory/Recovery/Regret/trauma/2018 Recovery Essay Award Winners
Losing My Words by Author Evelyn Krieger
If recovery means you are no longer sick, or even that you are simply functioning again, then perhaps I have recovered.
Fifty Miles by Sheryl St. Germain
If I were a religious person, I would say something blessed me that day. But I’m not a religious person. Perhaps some part of me believed, as I still do, in the...
10 Minute Read/Girls & Women/Grief/Health/Loss/Memoir/#MeToo/MeToo/nonfiction/Rape Culture/#SAAM/trauma/2018 #MeToo Selected Shortlist Essay
Smeared by Rachel Carson
"Did you know some hospitals have an entire department dedicated to rape victims?"
5 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Girls & Women/Loss/Memoir/#MeToo/MeToo/nonfiction/Rape Culture/The Life/trauma/2018 #MeToo Selected Shortlist Essay
Blowjobs by F. M. Walsh
We avoid their touch by pissing our pants on purpose. Boys don’t want to fondle girls who piss their pants. Fucking babies. We hide. We find a way out of the wo...
5 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Childhood/Escape/Family/Girls & Women/Grief/Identity/Literature/Loss/Memoir/Mommy Dearest/nonfiction/PTSD/Secrets/The Life/trauma
They Don’t Live in Dallas by Anna Mullins
Sometimes you lie so much you begin to believe what you say. Sometimes you don’t even have to say the lies out loud to believe them.
3 Minute Read/ACEs/Adversity/Health/Institutions/Literature/Loss/Memoir/MeToo/Mental Health/nonfiction/On Memory/PTSD/Recovery/trauma
Day 4: Mental Health Unit, Providence Hospital, Anchorage by K. Beth
She says she’s got Borderline Personality Disorder. That’s like the worst thing you can have, worse than Bipolar. I feel better being around her because suddenl...
2018 #Guns And People Runners Up/3 Minute Read/Aging/Contests and Prizes/Guns/Identity/Memoir/On Memory/war/The #Guns and People Award Winners
Boys With Guns by Jacob Paul Patchen
Now, this gun, slung tight around my neck, is heavier than I thought it would be. And it’s loud. Louder than thoughts of home....
15 Minute Read/Contests and Prizes/Guns/Justice/Literature/Memoir/nonfiction/On Memory/PTSD/The 2018 Memoir Magazine #Guns Essay Award Winners/The #Guns and People Award Winners
The Incident at Woodlawn Point by Linda Spear
But then, there was the boy’s life at stake and the man was obviously breaking the law. I realized I had shot him, that the whole problem had fallen into my la...
15 Minute Read/Contests and Prizes/Guns/Man in The Mirror/Memoir/nonfiction/Society/Survival/The #Guns and People Award Winners
Deadly Force: A Cop’s Perspective by Mark Johnson
I chucked the life of a CEO and civic leader to join the Mobile, Alabama police department. I was 50.