Lessons From a Fast, Furious Friendship With My Idol
The award-winning memoirist reflects on her intense, instantaneous social-media friendship with a favorite singer—only to be left to try to make sense of her just-as-sudden disappearing act.
Elissa Altman
contributor
Elissa Altman is the author of the memoirs Motherland; Treyf; and Poor Man’s Feast, the latter of which was based on the narrative food blog of the same name, for which she won the James Beard Award. A 2020 finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, Altman’s work appears in O: The Oprah Magazine, LitHub, Dame, Lion’s Roar, The Guardian, The Rumpus, Tin House, and the Washington Post, where her column, Feeding My Mother, ran for a year. She teaches the craft of memoir at Fine Arts Work Center, Maine Writers & Publishers, Loft Literary Center, and beyond.
“Whatever She’s Making, I Don’t Want Any”
In this exclusive excerpt from her poignant new memoir, TREYF, Elissa Altman's mother demonstrates over brunch with her in-laws that being difficult isn't the same thing as being wrong.
Help! I’ve Become My Mother’s Sugar Mama!
There was no question that the writer would take care of her mother in her old age. But what do you do when Mom squanders your hard-earned money on knockoff bags and jewelry?