David Small’s graphic memoir, Stitches, is a beautifully rendered account of a horrifying childhood, drawn in shades of gray. He recently answered a few of Rebecca Touger’s questions.

“I know everything there is to know about fathers who root against their sons.”
On May 5, 2007, Floyd Mayweather meets Oscar De LaHoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The fight has been hyped for five months. Floyd will make more than twenty million dollars and De LaHoya will make more than thirty. De [...]

The following is an excerpt from The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment by A.J. Jacobs. Be sure to check out Chris Teja’s interview with him here.

240 Minutes of Fame
In my real life, I’ve had just the tiniest taste of what it’s like to be famous. Three instances come to mind:
1. The book [...]

The following is an excerpt from Kaylie Jones’s new memoir, Lies My Mother Never Told Me. Be sure to check out her interview with Miranda Martin here.
Lies My Mother Never Told Me
Part I
I used alcohol as the magical conduit to fantasy and euphoria,
and to the enhancement of the imagination. There is no need to
either rue [...]

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 [...]

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.

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 [...]

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 [...]

The following is an excerpt from Loon: A Marine Story, Jack McLean’s memoir about joining the Marine Corps in the mid-sixties. Be sure to check out Chris Teja’s interview with McLean.
Chapter One
June 6, 1968.
It had already been a long day, and dawn had yet to break.
On his hands and knees, Bill Matthews scampered up over [...]