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Memoir Monday

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About Memoir Monday

Memoir Monday is a newsletter edited by Sari Botton and quarterly reading series hosted by Memoir Monday founder Lilly Dancyger, both of which are co-curated by Catapult, Granta, Guernica, Narratively, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, and Oldster Magazine.

Each week, the editors of these fine publications each select their very favorite new personal essay or memoir piece, and you can find them all collected in the Memoir Monday newsletter—along with details about upcoming readings. Learn more on the website.

Submitting *published* essays for the Memoir Monday weekly newsletter:

Recently Memoir Monday opened submissions for essays published around the web, to be considered for inclusion in the weekly curation. Here is how to submit those:

By Thursday of each week, please send to memoirmonday@gmail.com:

  1. The title of the essay and a link to it.
  2. The name of the author, and the author’s Twitter handle.
  3. A paragraph or a few lines from the piece that will most entice readers.
  4. Because of data limits for many email platforms, going forward we will only include artwork from our partner publications. No need to send art.*Please be advised, however, that we cannot accept all submissions, nor respond to the overwhelming number of emails received.

Submitting *original* personal essays for the new “First Person Singular” section:

I’ve just launched “First Person Singular,” a sub-newsletter featuring original personal essays. Right now, given my workload and general need to make a living, I have the time and bandwidth to accept and edit *one* essay per month. If subscriptions grow to the point that they are more sustaining and I can focus more on this and less on other jobs, I will consider adding more pieces to the roster, adding an additional section for craft essays, and possibly hiring other editors.

What I’m looking for/pay rates/how to submit:

  • Completed personal essays of 1500 to 2500 words. I will not be assigning from pitches.
  • I’m interested in a diverse variety of authors subjects and voices and tones, and look generally for pieces that make meaning of deeply personal experiences. (Basically, what good first-person writing does.) Something I love but don’t see enough of: essays in which writers consider difficult experiences through the lens of absurdity.
  • The pay rate is $200. You retain all rights, but I ask that you wait 90 days before reprinting elsewhere, that you credit First Person Singular with original publication, and link to the original if you are reprinting online.
  • To submit, email the following to pitch2sari@gmail.com (*NOT* the Memoir Monday email): Your completed personal essay, with a well-written, brief synopsis of the piece (a paragraph or two) in the email. In the subject line, write “First Person Singular:” followed by the title of your piece.