Heart of the Matter: A series that explores all angles of the heart, from your epic heartbreak to a life-saving procedure
This special collaboration from Narratively and Creative Nonfiction is made possible by support from the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University.
There’s a reason most songs are about love and matters of the heart, that there are popular books, bands, movies and shows with the word heart prominently in the title, that Valentine’s Day is celebrated globally by more than half the world… You get the idea — the heart is, well, important. Which is why we’ve joined forces with Creative Nonfiction to bring you a special issue in which we put it under the microscope and examine it in all sorts of ways. (This is our third time teaming up with CNF for a series collab — check out The Art of Narrative Storytelling and The Ever-Present Liquid, too.)
Over the next few months, we plan to bring you stories about: one woman’s path to healing her broken heart in an unexpected way; how to use “heart medicine” to mend a marriage; the promise of a heart transplant from an extraordinary donor; and lastly, a group of infants with heart problems who died mysterious deaths, and the search to find out why.
To kick this series off, we’re starting with a heart-aching but uplifting essay from author Elizabeth Laura Nelson. She writes about getting advice on how to move on after losing her best-friend-turned-lover from the person she least expects. We hope you enjoy this first one, and we’ll be posting the rest in the weeks to come. Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day!
—Jesse Sposato, executive editor of Narratively
#1: What’s the Opposite of Taking Someone’s Virginity?
Story by Elizabeth Laura Nelson
I finally slept with my best friend, just before he died—and I started to fall apart after he was gone. Then a conversation with his ghost—and a perilous trek through the woods—changed everything.
Note: Audio narration is available for all published stories via the Substack app, which you can download here.