A Legacy of Messy Truths, LITFRIENDS Newsletter
May 08, 2023 9:59 pm
A Legacy of Messy Truths
LITFRIENDS*,
Option to read this newsletter online, at JWP.
Mothers and Fathers and Messy Histories
This season of Mothers and Fathers Day sparked thoughts of my roots and family stories. If you've ever watched Skip Gates' Finding Your Roots, you have seen people who lost their families' history and wish to restore the stories. Family stories disappear even when they are astounding tales of loss, bravery, accomplishment, and hiding from societal shame. I didn't ask my Grandmother if she regretted leaving school after grade 6. My family story of a great-grandfather who went West and was supposed to find his fortune and then call for his family was complicated. I found the proof of his new family but never learned the story that led to him dying in a poor house in Texas. I don't know my relatives' stories, the cost of their choices, or their motivations. I wish they had written memoirs. Our unknowns can keep families clinging to stories that are not true or have all the wrinkles ironed out with nice lies. Refusal to address and own truths and complexities keep our people and our nation adhering to a whitewashed culture. We see false sanctimony everywhere. It's not truth; it's not love. We do love our imperfect parents. Our true stories and memoirs can serve the future and make better sense of our lives than whitewashed mythology.
Watch Viola Davis' Interest and Surprise as She Learns Family Truths in this YouTube Video.
–Amy Lou Jenkins
You’ll receive a concise email with four items to bolster your lit life a few times each month. Look for some variety, and expect that each item seeks to serve your writing and reading life.
1. #WriterNews (Subscribers can list their news on our FB page and we may promote it in our newsletter and website. Share widely so we can support each other.
- Professor Margo Jefferson has been awarded the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize for Constructing a Nervous System: a Memoir (Pantheon, 2022)
- Kima Jones of Durham, North Carolina, won the second annual Granum Foundation Prize for her memoir, Butch.
2. #CallsForSubmissions
These Markets Want Your Work
- New Orleans Review, is seeking submissions for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Contributors can receive $300 for prose and $100 for poetry if their work is accepted. The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2023. In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, all API writers are exempt from submission fees during May. Details.
- Quarter Press: Quarter(ly) Accepts submissions of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art that align with our specified themes. A $5 payment is offered for accepted works. The submission deadline is May 31, 2023. Details.
- The Baltimore Review is seeking submissions for various genres, including poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, videos (inclusive of poetry), and cross-genre pieces. They offer a payment of $40 and the deadline for submission is on May 31, 2023. Details.
3. #WritingArticles +
- Hook your reader from the first line of your memoir. Read Memoir Openings.
- Let’s look at more examples with The First Line of Ten Successful Memoirs.
- Mary Karr Takes a Deep Dive into Memoir. YouTubeVideo
4. #BookReview
Even if You Think You Don't Care About Fungi-
consider
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Every terrestrial plant and every human rely on fungal networks for existence. There are many reasons to read Sheldrake's eloquent and exuberant exploration of this oft-overlooked kingdom of life upon which we depend. Sheldrake oozes with celebration, intellectual fervor, and a literary style that charms the reader into finding fungi as fascinating as he finds them. He makes fungi fun. Read the review.
End Notes
Your Story Is Important, So Get Started
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