Short reads: November 18, 2024

Short writing

Six killer creative nonfiction pieces I’ve loved recently. Three related ones by Marilyn Duarte, plus Keegan Lawler, Erin Wood and Allison Field Bell.

  • Steal Smoked Fish
    by
    A memoir about going home again after coming out, woven together with a Mountain Goats song and the story behind it.
    in
  • A Father’s Legacy
    by
    A story told as a flowchart in an image, about her family’s history in Portugal and Toronto. It’s harrowing, and worth the effort to zoom and scroll around to follow the various branches. Duarte should write a memoir, I’d buy it for sure.
    in
  • Two Stories
    by
    Two related and absolutely crushing pieces of flash nonfiction by a Toronto writer: “Let Me Pretend” and “He always says he will never leave me”. Domestic abuse is a big part of these stories. Five minutes of reading you’ll never forget.
    in
  • Athens, Revised
    by
    A piece about coming to understand, process, and live with trauma, even many years after the event.
    in
  • The Word Disorder
    by
    An upsetting story about a woman’s relationship with her body and the people around her
    in

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