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ICYMI: We recently published an essay by Mallory McDuff that is one of those essays we’ll be thinking about for a long time. Our readers, too. We’ve already heard from several of you saying how much this piece — about Mallory’s journey contemplating and exploring environmentally friendly end-of-life choices with her students — means to you. If you haven’t read it yet, don’t take our word for it. Check it out for yourself, and if you feel inspired by it, please share it with others to help create the ripple effect Mallory writes about in her piece. Link in bio.Absolutely stunning image by Jane Demarest #PersonalEssay #Memoir #MemoirWriting #ThePersonals #ShortMemoir

Writers! I’ll be running a new online course with @narratively starting next week, focused on building a sustainable writing practice that you can actually integrate into your daily life.

Sure, it’d be great to have three hours every morning to work on your pages. But who has that type of time? In this course we’ll try out different strategies to find what works best for your writing brain, and then push it a little further. Link in bio to learn more!

I get to...

yes...

teach a workshop on micro-memoir.

If you know me, you know I'm wordy and chatty and my first draft is completely over-written. If I had a word bank account, it would have been overdrawn by my mid-twenties. I have something to say about most everything.

The art in polished writing lies in revision. This is especially true for short form, such as flash, micro, and poetry.

In this workshop I share three distinct approaches—photography and framing prompts, poetic craft techniques, and essay templates.

I hope you'll join me over at @narratively Academy on April 26th from 2-4 pm ET.

And if you can't join, I hope you play with short form writing. It's highly satisfying.

#writingcommunity #essay #flashessay #creativenonfiction

Happy Friday, everyone! We are over the moon to be publishing the grand prize-winning story of our 2025 Memoir Prize today, written by Andrew Printer and illustrated by Lia Strasser! Reading it is the perfect way to start your weekend — it’s an adventure story for the ages. Thanks again to everyone who submitted — always an honor to read your words. And come join us next Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. ET for a virtual party to celebrate the winning story and our winner, Andrew, who will be reading from it. Hope to see you! Link in bio. #NarrativelyMemoirPrize #MemoirPrize2025 #MemoirPrize #MemoirContest #PersonalEssay

AI isn't supposed to be a shortcut to make your life easy and do your writing for you. It's supposed to push you to aim higher and do more. Free workshop April 22 — link in bio.

#AI #writing #creativity #writingcommunity #amwriting #writersofinstagram

Meet the grand prize winner of our 2025 Memoir Prize, Andrew Printer! And the lovely finalists as well, Heather K.M. Lewis and James McSherry. Be on the lookout for their essays in the coming weeks/months. Thank you to everyone who participated! Link to full announcement in bio. #2025MemoirPrize #MemoirPrize #2025NarrativelyMemoirPrize #NarrativelyMemoirPrize #Memoir

This week’s Personals piece, written by the absolutely brilliant Angie Chuang who blows us away with her writing every time, is a special one. It’s another side of a story we hear about all the time, told so beautifully with care, tenderness and a bit of bite. 😉Head to our link in bio to read it or give it a listen. Angie narrates this one herself. Don’t miss it! Original, amazing illustration by the talented Jane Demarest.#ThePersonals #Memoir #PersonalEssay #PersonalEssays #CreativeNonfiction

This week, just in time for Valentine’s Day, we have a very personal Personals story from none other than our executive editor, Jesse Sposato. Head to our link in bio to read or listen to this coming-of-age tale, which is part of a bigger collection she’s working on. *Amazing illustration by the ever-lovely and very patient Noa Denmon. 🙏* Happy Valentine’s Day from our team to you! 🩷💌💘 #ThePersonals #Memoir #PersonalEssay #PersonalEssays #CreativeNonfiction

Some friendships arrive late and still feel like they have always been there.

I met fellow native New Yorker Maria Smilios at a Narratively event maybe ten years ago and we just clicked. Two exhausted mothers in the sandwich generation, older parent and young child caregiving stuff, watching the very young, non-exhausted people chat over pool, instantly recognizing each other, instantly deciding we needed to show up for each other and keep showing up.

We both wanted bigger nonfiction careers. We made an agreement to be from day one the supportive friend, not the jealous friend.

She did it. Read her amazing nonfiction book, The Black Angels.

Maria is in a blizzard power outage zone right now, so I hope this reaches her in a timely way. Happy birthday, Maria. I am beyond grateful for your decade of friendship and support.

Keep on creating. I’ll be cheering you on. And also always there for the latenight “that m&therf@cker” sessions. 🤣 @mariamsmilios @narratively

Wise words from the slightly skeptical-looking Julianna Bright. This 45-minute live video conversation (with the ever-awesome Jesse Sposato of Narratively) was a deep dive into murky waters. If you’ve ever been in a long-term partnership or you’re interested in how compounds like this can change lives, I think you’ll find something of value here!

Go to Substack and look up either Narratively or Dispatches From the Fringe.

Love always,
Seth
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#thankyouplantmedicine
#neuroscience
#writerslife
#ancestralhealing
#ancestraltrauma
#ancestralmemory
#portlandwriters
#writenow
#memoirwriting
#writingfromtheheart
#epigenetics
#portlandwriters
#writingresolution
#writingcommunity
#memoirwriting
#writersofinstagram
#jewishtrauma
#instawriters
#AmWriting
#spiralpathcollective

We had the absolute best time chatting with Julianna Bright and Seth Lorinczi about their experience that led to Seth’s article for us, “Our Therapist Gave My Wife and Me MDMA—and It Saved Our Marriage.” Catch a glimpse here and head to our link in bio for the full conversation. (Note: The whole recorded convo is available for paying subs only.) #liveqna #liveinterview #liveinterviews #livechat #longformessay

Are you ready to submit to the 2025 Narratively Memoir Prize? It's time.

Head to the link in our bio (or either of our websites) to check out the announcement page and learn how to submit. (And subscribers to both sites, you'll find the links to submit for free on those pages, too.)

Deadline is Sunday, December 7 EOD. In other words, tomorrow. You got this! We can't wait to read your work.

#2025MemoirPrize #2025NarrativelyMemoirPrize #EssayContest #MemoirContest #Memoir #Essays #LongformEssay #WritingContest #WritingContests