My All-Time Favorite Narratively Memoirs
Dive into 5 of the most revealing and intimate personal essays we've ever published, from one about an epic teenage prank to another about a runaway mom.
I often say to colleagues that being an editor is a little bit like being a therapist. Actually, when it comes to editing memoir stories it’s a lot like being a therapist. That’s because the most important (and hardest) part of memoir is digging deep to figure out how you really feel about the events at hand, then communicating that to readers. In almost every memoir I edit, at some point I find myself writing some variety of, “This part sounds pretty, but you’re avoiding us telling us how you really feel.” The best memoirs go beyond flowery language and tell us exactly what the writer felt at that moment in time, which is what makes them so relatable, whether or not you’ve ever experienced something similar to what the author has gone through. (By the way, if you’ve been working on a personal essay of your own and are ready for an editor/unlicensed therapist to help you get through the hard parts, we have a few spots left in my May Memoir Mentorship: Perfecting the Personal Essay for Narratively Academy.) These five essays are among my favorite pieces we’ve ever published, because in each one, the author really digs deep to make the experience intensely relatable.
1. Searching for the Woman Who Saved My Immigrant Family from Homelessness
Story by Shaheen Pasha
In this time of Islamophobia and hatred, I needed to understand what made a white stranger open her home to us.
2. Diary of a Bachelor Who Suddenly Became a Solo Dad to a Teenage Girl
Story by Kern Carter
I was an 18-year-old father who couldn’t be there for his baby. I know, you’ve heard this one before. How about this part? Twelve years later Krystasia’s mom walked away and never came back.
Story by Ray W. Hayden
In gritty 1980s New York, one West Village flophouse became a last-chance refuge for addicts, criminals, LGBTQ runaways, and anyone with nowhere left to go. And my mom was their queen.
4. My High School’s Secret Fantasy Slut League
Story by Lena Crown
Our wealthy California school had a hookup game where boys “drafted” girls, then tracked their sex acts. A decade later, my classmates still debate whether “FSL” was harmless teenage hijinks or a symptom of toxic rot in our elite enclave.
5. The Teenage Prank That’s Lasted 60 Years
Story by Clay Jennings Desmond
I was a bored high schooler when I made up a harmless story about the creature from the sandpits. Decades later, its legend still haunts our small Southern town.
Ready to tell your own story? Join Brendan for Narratively Academy’s May Memoir Mentorship: Perfecting the Personal Essay.
