Memoir Essays

A couple of quiet weeks sailing the River Severn was the intention. Somehow things got out of hand—a year later, I had reached Romania and was still going. Equipped with his cheerful optimism and a pith helmet, this Australian Odysseus in a dinghy travels from the borders of North Wales to the Black Sea—4,900 kilometres over salt and fresh water, under sail, at the oars, or at the end of a tow-rope—through 12 countries, 282 locks and numerous trials and adventures, including an encounter with Balkan pirates.

In this “vivid…lovely and inviting” (The New York Times) coming-of-age memoir—the “best piece of nature writing since H Is for Hawk” (Neil Gaiman)—a young man saves a baby magpie as his estranged father is dying, only to find that caring for the bird saves him. This is a story of...

Jack Kerouac’s archive is vast. Throughout his life he was constantly writing, and he meticulously saved and catalogued his material. The result is that beyond the work published in his lifetime there has been a rich stream of posthumous writing that is far from tapped. This collection of previously unpublished writing culled from the Kerouac archive, and as a companion to Paul Maher Jr.'s Becoming Kerouac, spans Kerouac’s adult life, from a journal written at age seventeen to autobiographical reflections a few years before his death.

In this witty, absurd, and surprisingly moving memoir-in-essays, comedian Alison Leiby unpacks the multitudes women are told to be—and the joy of refusing to pick just one. Have you ever frozen when someone asks, "So, tell me about yourself?" If so, take a page from I'm a Lot. Alison Leiby...

A dazzling memoir that explores what it means to become fully alive and holy when we embrace the silenced stories we’ve inherited—from the creator of Black Coffee with White Friends. “Marcie Alvis Walker writes with an honesty that is both dauntless and compassionate.”—Cole Arthur...

Across these twenty fresh and boldly intimate stories, Erin Riley writes about the things that matter most: family, heartbreak, humanity, justice and swimming, and the messy, hard graft of becoming one's authentic self. In weaving together their everyday while questioning society and its structures, Erin gifts us stories that double as a manifesto on how to disrupt and reinvent narrative, identity, love and community.

FINALIST FOR THE GORDON MONTADOR AWARD FOR THE BEST BOOK ON SOCIAL ISSUES A GLOBE AND MAIL EDITOR'S CHOICE “Highly readable and of extraordinary value.” —The Globe and Mail A deeply personal journey of Indigenous reclamation, belonging, and the power of language. More than thirty years...

Born on the West Coast, the son of Bronx-born parents, Steve Wasserman is a generalist and public intellectual but is perhaps less well known as a cultural essayist and social critic of the first rank. In thirty splendid essays, originally published in such diverse publications as The New Republic and The Nation, The American Conservative and The Progressive, The Village Voice and The Economist, Wasserman delivers a riveting account of the awakening of an empathetic sensibility and a lively mind.

In sixteen essays published over the past decade, acclaimed novelist Elisa Albert considers everything from the creative process to reproductive justice, ambition to Ani DiFranco, Judaism to the ethos of punk, all in the midst of making a home in the strange city of Albany, New York.

“Has the page-turning quality of a thriller.” —NPR “Strange and wonderful…A book for our times.” —The New York Times Book Review “Propulsive…mesmerizing…breathtaking.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) This unforgettable memoir traces the ramifications of a series of...

From Denne Michele Norris and Electric Literature, a vital anthology of essays by trans and gender-nonconforming writers of color, sharing stories of joy, heartbreak, rage, and self-discovery. Featuring seventeen essays by trans people of color—spanning writers, scientists, actors, activists...

寒い日には体と心まで温まるじゃがいもと鱈 のグラタン、春になったら芹やクレソンのし ゃぶしゃぶを。石垣島から届いたパイナップ ルでタルトを焼いたり、ペンギンの仕事場に トンカツの出前をするこ

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s deeply personal essay explores racial conflict through the prism of his childhood and the influence of his father, a police officer who walked the beat between two worlds.

या पुस्तकात जगातील स मोठी लोकशाही अस्तित्वात कशी आली या घटनेचा मानवी पैलू सांगण्याचा प्रयत्न लेखकाने केला आहे. चमकदार उदाहरणं आणि सखोल संशोधनानं समृद्ध अशा या पुस्तकासोबत बीबीसी रेडिओ सीरिज4 या मालिकेच्या माध्यमातून लेखकाने अध्यात्म क्षेत्रातील भगवान बुद्धांपासून ते भांडवलशहा धीरूभाई अंबानींपर्यंत 50 भारतीय जीवनांचा आढावा घेतला आहे.

Uprooting ourselves and putting down roots elsewhere has become second nature. Americans are among the most mobile people on the planet, moving house an average of nine times in adulthood. Mobile Home explores one family's extreme and often international version of this common experience. Inspired by Megan Harlan's globe-wandering childhood, Mobile Home maps the emotional structures and metaphysical geographies of home.

"A decidedly skewed, hilarious collection of life reflections and colorful storytelling." — Kirkus Reviews An endlessly entertaining collection of wayward autobiographical tales about a search for a richer life thwarted at every turn by beagles, bureaucrats, and ill-advised love affairs The...

From the author of The House on Mango Street, a richly illustrated compilation of true stories and nonfiction pieces that, taken together, form a jigsaw autobiography—an intimate album of a beloved literary legend. From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The...

Hearing about hockey is not the same as being at the rink on game night, but these stories present a portrait of a small city’s team, playing a sport that has been ever-changing and always exhilarating.

Essays on Madness tells the 25 year tale of the author's battle with her own brain, through bouts of depression, suicidal ideation, and a whole load of other stuff. But the story's not as bleak as it might sound. It's an honest take on how it feels to have such a messy head, but also sheds light on what helps her feel that little bit less shit. Whether it's therapy and medication or minimalism and quitting dieting, she discovered there's a always a different way to look at things...and usually plenty to laugh about, too.

A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of 2020 In a book equal parts travelogue and pandemic guide, the journalist Ethan Lou examines the societal effects of COVID-19 and takes us on a mesmerizing journey around a world that will never be the same. Visiting Beijing in January 2020 to see his...