The following is the opening passage from Danzy Senna’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night: A Personal History. The memoir chronicles her family’s history and their complicated racial identities. And be sure to read Rebecca Touger’s interview with Senna.
In 1975 my mother left my father for the last time. We fled to Guilford, Connecticut. It [...]

The following is the preface from The Ramen King and I: How the Inventor of Instant Noodles Fixed My Love Life. And be sure to read Ty Wenger’s interview with author Andy Raskin.
“It is said that real human nature reveals itself under extreme conditions. As I starved in prison, I realized that eating was one [...]

Humorist Joe Queenan turns a serious eye to his childhood in his new memoir, Closing Time. He writes about his abusive, alcoholic father and growing up poor in Irish Catholic Philadelphia. This week, he spoke with Adam Rose about the memoir, and you can read an excerpt from the opening chapter below.
Chapter 1. The Man [...]

“Regardless of her motive, when a wife shields herself from controversy, the strength of her buttressing is bulldog tough. It’s not a Green Curtain. Sweetie, it’s a brick wall.”
The ramifications of vowing “for better or for worse” in a military marriage are heightened—I’m attached, by law and in spirit, to my husband, and by association, [...]

Lucky Girl is Mei-Ling Hopgood’s memoir about traveling to Taiwan to meet the birth family she’d never known. Hopgood grew up thinking she had escaped a life of poverty when she was adopted by Americans, but in Taiwan, she learned that her birth family defied all of her assumptions. This week, she spoke with Andrea [...]

Master essayist Phillip Lopate writes about his relationship with his media star brother, Leonard, in “My Brother, My Life,” from Andrew Blauner’s Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry.

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh’s parents devoted their lives to the Socialist Workers Party, and they did their best to make sure their son followed in their revolutionary footsteps. Read an excerpt from his new memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free: A Memoir of a Political Childhood, below. And be sure to check out Rebecca Touger’s interview with [...]

Kevin Roose is just an average college student: he sings in an a cappella group, he writes for the newspaper, and he studied abroad—at Jerry Falwell’s evangelical Liberty University. Listen to an interview about his new book, The Unlikely Disciple.

“If I were selling, I would, as they say in the Match.com ads, clean up good. Shopping for a house is like dating, minus, unfortunately, the cocktails and sex.”
The following is an excerpt from Gimme Shelter by Mary Elizabeth Williams. Read Larry Smith’s interview with Williams here.
A Tomb With a View
The ad says the [...]

In her new memoir, Kathleen Rooney talks about her experiences as a nude life drawing model, and explores the the practice in the context of both the art world and modern society. Be sure to check out her g-chat interview with Katherine Wootton, and read an excerpt from the book below.