Apostates, comfort food, and teenage pranks
Welcome back to Memoir Monday—a weekly newsletter and quarterly reading series, brought to you by Narratively, The Rumpus, Catapult, Longreads, Granta, and Guernica. Each essay in this newsletter has been selected by the editors at the above publications as the best of the week, delivered to you all in one place. It may be the start of a new work week, but at least we have this great new writing to get us through it.
A Vocabulary for Apostates
by Daniel Allen Cox
She hemorrhaged most of her blood that day. It was her spiritual duty as a Jehovah’s Witness to refuse transfusions. At this very moment, somewhere in the world, a set of Jehovah’s Witness parents are seated in court, flipping through Leviticus, explaining why their sick kid can’t have blood, while the judge wonders how long they can afford to debate religious freedom. A small life ebbs away under a web of tubing.
American Tests
by Jakki Kerubo
I was afraid I’d be deported. Did the interviewer know about my parking tickets from those days when I hadn’t quite figured out New York City’s alternate side rules? Or that once, after a bottomless brunch, I’d sung loudly on the subway, not caring that someone shouted the suggestion I “stick to shower singing”? My appointment was for noon, and now it was 6 p.m. I hadn’t eaten all day, but my hunger had receded, replaced with anxiety and a thudding headache. All afternoon I’d rocked myself for comfort as people streamed in and out of the interview rooms.
Gettin' Jigae With It
by Noah Cho
And this resourceful, improvisational kimchijigae method reminds me of other aspects of our lives now, the questions so many of us are asking and the processes we’re going through in isolation. Every day brings some new attempt to transform what we already have into something that maybe feels new, or comforting, or at least recognizable.
Becoming Animal
by Kimi Eisele
To become-animal is to move from a solid sense of identity to something that is moving and shifting, a deterritorialization. Becoming-animal, Deleuze and Guattari write, un-humans the human. It is something 'the animal proposes to the human by indicating ways-out or means of escape that the human would never have thought of by himself.
Carrot Bread
by Annabel Banks
Turning once again to my laptop, I set the font size on Word to thirty-six, then seventy-two points. The dissertation is nearly done. I think it is good, that I worked hard and wrote well. As I lie in the MRI, eyeballs vibrating, I sing pop songs in my mind, trying not to think of the future for a writer who cannot write, a student who cannot study.
The Teenage Prank That’s Lasted 60 Years
by Clay Jennings Desmond
Our car now a magnet, attracting more teens wanting details about the seven-foot monster. Late arrivals wanted it from the beginning. With each new start of the story, the two of us took turns fabricating extra details while the other nodded attestation to the truth of the lies. In the midst of spinning this yarn, a police cruiser suddenly drove into the space right beside us. We were still sitting in my car, windows rolled down, dripping top to toe, shivering in the coolness, smelling strongly of algae and stagnant pond water.
Writers’ Resources
Author, editor, and Memoir Monday alum Meredith Talusan is hosting a series of free Zoom workshops about pitching and publishing. The next one, “How Editors Choose Books,” will take place this Wednesday!
One week from today! Join us on Zoom for a wonderful evening of readings with Porochista Khakpour, Amy Long, Sejal Shah, and Alia Volz. Click here to register.
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