Category: Memoir| Memoir Magazine
I am here, but I'm not just like you I am not home. The full MELANCHOLAI by Tomislav Silepeter can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
How did we get a 5 year old with severe ADHD to wear a mask for a full year of kindergarten? The full How Calvin Wore His Mask by Nathan Holic can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
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 was always an arm or leg stuck outside, restless... The full Old With Jokes by Leanne Grabel can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
As a child, I witnessed the brutal torture and beatings that my mother, a teacher, endured at the hands of a gang of violent students, the Red Guards. The images of her half-shaved hair, a urine pot hanging from her neck, a high paper hat on her head, and the scars on her face, are forever ingrained in my memory. The full Years in a Pigsty by Sue Tong can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
The epoch of tiramisu in bed on a Saturday morning. Of sharing soap, of rituals, what it means to live a thousand lifetimes within a year, knowing your mother will never love me and pretending it won’t matter someday. The epoch of organizing socks. Of grocery lists, of intricacy. The epoch of lavender sheets, of you coming home to me, the way everything else feels so small. Of sleep talking, post-it notes in a lunch bag, back porch thunderstorms, letting in the rain. The epoch of choosing t...| Memoir Magazine
Our teacher had said she thought the Negroes were going too far. I had raised my hand and disagreed. “Too far from what?” I had asked. The full An Eighth Grade Moment by Edna Garte can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
I thought about that wrongness I had believed was inside me. When I was little, it felt like a monster, trying to fight its way out. But now I knew there was never any monster; there was always just a little girl with pink inside trying to hold in all the feelings that she didn’t know how to. The full The Body by Darcey Gohring can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
But I don’t say that, instead I will say that I’m going to build a Tiny House, and ditch the double-wide. That way they will be awed instead by my quirky ingenuousness, and believe I want to live here. Not that I have to because I am broken, by promises and their men, profound overwhelming sadness and disappointment, and the relentless strivings of city life. Besides, I own this un-sellable land. I have nowhere else to belong. It’s hard barren dirt is in my blood. The full Main Street M...| Memoir Magazine
My mother used to save her used tea bags in a small glass cup. I don’t think that she ever used one twice. Having grown up during the Great Depression, the thought of throwing the bag away after only one use was probably disturbing to her—much too extravagant. I watched the saved tea bags dry, shrink, curl, turn brown, and stick to the bottom of the cup—a monument to good intentions. The full Tea Bags by David Margolin can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
Now, in its 5th year, the Memoir Prize awards Memoir and Creative Nonfiction book length works of exceptional merit in the categories of traditional, self-published, and previously unpublished prose. The only contest of its kind, dedicated exclusively to the Memoir genre. This is a real opportunity for outstanding independently and self-published memoir authors to get the recognition they deserve. The full The Memoir Prize For Books! can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
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 standing at the edge of the void, your body in the grip of a vertiginous urge. Memoir is about finding your bearings so that you can walk with one foot in the present and the other in the past. There, you have become the stateless citizen of multiple countries; you hold a passport for time travel. The full Sourdough, Ancestors, and Othe...| Memoir Magazine
To my friends, I tell the story as a joke. If Sarafina comes up in conversation, she — who bought me a beautiful pink tutu when I was nine and gave me beads and clasps to make my own jewelry when I was 14 and took me to Birdland to hear jazz when I was 19 — is now cast as an eccentric. She is my crazy aunt, the one who changed her name. # Peggy’s new name and lifestyle elicit revelations within the family. We used to find her lying on the ground, staring, my mother says. She’d bless...| Memoir Magazine
I lived with my mom and grandma. Just the three of us. No siblings, no cousins, no aunts or uncles. Everyone I knew was one of our ages: adolescent, middle-aged, or elderly. No in-between. Thus, at thirteen, I was certain I’d soon be in midlife. From there, it’d be a quick bounce to old age, like a skipping stone toward death. Every day I stared in the mirror, checking the profile of my chin, horrified by the lines on my neck. The full The Day My Mother Lost Her Looks by Jenelle Boucher c...| Memoir Magazine
When Amy’s mother dies, there will be an autopsy. The report’s first paragraph will detail long black hairs protruding from her chin. It will be a commentary, a character judgement, a classification by statement of unnecessary fact. Amy will thumb her own stubbly chin and stop reading. It will all feel wrong. The full Hypostasis by Amy Bailey can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
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 future with a writing degree. He talked about the future. His future. The full Two Brothers’ Hunger by Derek Pezo can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
*Featured Art: A TEAR by Carolyn Schlam, Ink and Watercolor, 14″ x 11″, 2020 I am lying on the Murphy bed in Herb’s dark living room, having finally acquiesced to his reasoning, pleading, and emphatic swearing that he would not ejaculate in me. Because I would kill him. “Are you positive you can do this?”... The full Hon by Laurie Harriton can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
And then there were days when the ditch was full but no one to play with. My cousins weren’t around, and my brother didn’t want anything to do with me, so I put on my swim trunks or cut-offs or whatever lingered clean in my dresser drawer and what I had deemed worthy of ditch... The full Ditch Days by Kase Johnstun can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
with Featured artwork “Summer Shapes” by Norton Pease This, this is the memory that awoke in me one night while showering before bed. And let’s just get one thing straight before I go any further—this isn’t some story about a kid that got molested. Because it’s not. He’d peered down at my little boy body,... The full This Is Not Some Story About a Kid That Got Molested — Gary Smothers can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
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 to do the Easter shopping. I had all the essentials: fake grass, an assortment of candy, an Easter basket, and of course eggs and... The full First and Last Easter by S. Severin can be found at Memoir Magazine.| Memoir Magazine
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 sang in the choir, and they raised me to be a good Catholic girl. And God saw that it was good. Whatsoever you do to the least of my...| Memoir Magazine
Memoir, Narrative Creative Nonfiction, Personal Essays, OWN stories and more.| Memoir Magazine
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 had a network of spies on campus, those he either paid or blackmailed into aggressively turning in fellow students suspected of such aberrant behavior. You had to be careful. I was. Mike wasn’t. He was reported for coming on to the wrong person. There was to be a formal hearing. ...| Memoir Magazine
