People
Seedlings, or What Has Been Passed On
Just like plants, we inherit some traits from those who came before us, but when I spend time with my siblings I’m amazed by how different we are.
Trying to Conceive Feels a Little Bit Less Awful Than Not Trying
It isn’t my job to bear as much pain as I possibly can to prove that I am somehow worthy of becoming a mother. Why is it so hard to remember this?
To Grieve, We Began a Book Club for Two
Our first book club discussion was a learning experience.
The Legacy of Malaga Island and the Limits of Maine’s Progressivism
Once a mixed-race fishing community, the island is now empty, showing the gap between the state’s history and what it professes to be.
What I Learned About the Women I Love on the Other Side of the Battle With My Body
It took about a year for me to understand the bulimia was an expression of my anger. A way to hurt my body and myself, and a desperate attempt to regain normalcy.
Thuy-Van Vu’s Art Points to the Story Beyond the Subject
As an artist, Vu was looking for a way to represent personal history without feeling like she was “performing otherness.”
How the Secrets Came Out
This was about protecting the new self growing its delicate way within me.
What Bruce Lee’s Films Taught Me About Writing My Mother’s Voice
I know by worrying about a room of mostly white readers I undermine myself, but it’s become instinct. And, honestly, I just get tired.
It Doesn’t Hurt, It Hurts All the Time
What if we thought of emotional trauma the way we do physical: as a wide class of wounds whose healing is unpredictable, whose scars take different forms?
Give and Bake
If the muffins had been good, we’d have eaten them and gone to bed. But the story of their catastrophic badness: that, we could forever savor.