The following is an excerpt from Cooking Dirty by Jason Sheehan. Be sure to check out Chris Teja’s recent interview with Sheehan.
Prologue: Florida, 1998
Saturday night, early, no one was able to find a rhythm. We kept getting popped, then stalled, taking five tables like BangBangBangBangBang, then nothing for ten minutes. The FNG fell into [...]

Last year we featured an interview with Cathy Alter on the eve of the release of her memoir, Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over. At the not-so-ripe-old age of 37, Alter had hit rock bottom. Up For Renewal recounts her journey to claw her way back. At the [...]

Philip Smith’s memoir, Walking Through Walls, is about his father, a Miami interior decorator-turned-psychic healer, and about his own ensuing teenage rebellion. We recently sat down and asked him a few questions—from one SMITH to another.

The following is an excerpt from Philip Smith’s Walking Through Walls. Be sure to check out our interview with Smith here.
PROLOGUE
It was late July.
The summer mangoes had dropped from the trees and were lying rotting on the ground, ripped open by feasting bugs and birds.  Their intoxicating sweet smell mixed with the heaviness of the [...]

Kipp Friedman returns for a piece about the office of his father, the famous playwright and novelist Bruce Jay Friedman. Check out “The Barracuda in the Attic” and Kipp’s other piece for SMITH.

Novella Carpenter shares her adventures as a locavore, dumpster diver, farmer, butcher, and neighbor to some of the quirkiest real-life characters imaginable when she talks about her new memoir, Farm City.

Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s new memoir, Not Now, Voyager, weighs the pros and cons of travel as the she relates her own misadventures around the globe. She recently sat down and answered a few of my questions on her writing.

The following is an excerpt from Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s new memoir, Not Now, Voyager. Be sure to read Rebecca Touger’s interview with the author on writing, travel, and living abroad.
Orkos
I woke abruptly, to a darkness so thick I could breathe it in. My mind was ominously alert, none of that blurry, dream-clogged puzzlement that usually [...]

Wade Rouse headed for the woods with a copy of Walden and a vision of remaking himself in rural life. Things didn’t go quite according to plan. Read an interview with Rouse about his new memoir.

The following is an excerpt from Wade Rouse’s new memoir, At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream. Be sure to check out our interview with him about the book, his writing process, and life without designer shoes.
Coonskin Cap
There’s a raccoon on my head.
And I don’t particularly look good in hats.
Especially when they’re [...]