It’s Okay to Hate Your Scars
Women are expected to minimize our trauma and love our scars. Ten years after the writer suffered a hit-and-run accident that took her ear, she realized she didn't have to embrace expectation.
First Person
The Game Was Rigged All Along
The DSM removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses in 1973. So why did the author's mother lose everything—including her kids—when she left her abusive husband for a woman in the late 1970s?
I Wear Orange to Honor My Cousin’s Memory
Gun violence disproportionately affects Black women, like this young author's cousin, a massage therapist shot and killed by her client. This is her story.
How the Justice System Erases Trans Identities
The Department of Corrections fails to acknowledge incarcerated trans identities. A first-hand account by a trans woman who is fighting for prisoners to have their authentic selves be documented.
When You Hate Your Mother
Sometimes, we are born to toxic moms. But, as this writer has discovered, no matter what we do to protect ourselves, our bond with them is inescapable.
I Had a Miscarriage During COVID
Losing a pregnancy is often traumatic, not only for the grief but for the way our society shames us for it. Could this pandemic restore our humanity toward one another?
That One Last Conference of the Before Times
Every year, 12,000 writers attend the AWP writers conference. Last year, it was one of the few conferences that chose not to cancel—and this writer went. A year later, does she regret it?
The Burden of Demanding Black Excellence
Black people don't get to reap the glory of simply just being—too many of us have been punished, even murdered, for just living our lives.
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.