You Can Call Me Betty by Allison Wehrle
I do remember going to visit shortly after the stroke. As a preschooler, and through no great accomplishment of my own, I was suddenly more articulate than the ...
The War is Over by Deborah Adelman
...at least when you are not lying awake at night in your bed in the living room, feeling the enormity of the world’s violence and wondering how your family mig...
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...
Dinner In Apartment 4N by Nancy Reckler
*Artwork by Elisa Peterson This time, their argument began in the kitchen. I sat next to my sister as my parents stood over us yelling and cursing across the bl...
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...
5 Minute Read/Childhood/Featured/Family/Institutions/Man in The Mirror/Memory/morality/nonfiction/Race Matters/Society
What Love Looks Like in Public by Jacqueline St. Joan
The urge to move is nameless, both voluntary and involuntary. The trick is to get that far and then get out of the way. Follow it to the first words and then ...
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...
A Lunchtime by Kate Dowling
*Featured Artwork: “Rain” by Ann Marie Sekeres I had to go out that lunchtime. Some DVDs were due back at Blockbuster, we were nearly out of milk an...
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 ...
Your Greatest Fear by Sherri Wright
In the United States about six million people over 65 live with Alzheimer’s disease. You wonder how much your mother knew and if she suffered. Looking back, ...
Make Me Cry/Healing/5 Minute Read/ACEs/Being Body/Featured/Family/Food/Girls & Women/Health/Literature/Man in The Mirror/Mothers and Daughters/nonfiction/Society
The Body History by Jessica Marks
My body is a series of numbers. I weigh 204, I wear a size 16. My waist is eight inches smaller than my hips, my breasts are 38B. I should probably go up to a 4...
Children of a Deaf(er) God, Part 1 of 2 by Kevin Garrison
I read the Bible each morning partly because I want to know the scriptures; I read partly because I want my ears to be healed; I read partly because I want to b...
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...
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...