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essays

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  • I Didn’t Want to Fly Fish, But I Loved Him Enough to Learn

    I wanted to associate myself with what he loved, in order to be closer to him

    Jul 16 - Rebecca Swanberg
    Personal Narrative

    What Sally Rooney’s Fiction Illuminates About Real-Life Marriage

    The problem with the young Irish author was how her writing remained deeply uncynical about love

    Jul 9 - Katy Whitehead
    Personal Narrative

    Why Do I Keep Coming Back to Trains?

    It’s best for a writer to learn how to write under any conditions. Train travel forced me to adapt

    Jul 2 - Weike Wang
    Personal Narrative

    My Newborn Refusing to Eat Challenged Everything I Thought I Knew

    By trying to control her eating, I had broken trust with my child who wasn’t yet three months old

    Jun 25 - Colleen Morrissey
    Personal Narrative

    Americans Have Been Sold False Hope

    “Dream big,” they tell us. “The sky’s the limit.” We are lied to.

    Jun 18 - Zinzi Clemmons
    Personal Narrative

    I Glimpsed My Future at a High School Speech Tournament

    There’s something sweetly sad about how I remember my scores from 25 years ago, evidence of a worth I still struggle to internalize

    Jun 11 - James Davis
    Personal Narrative

    My Brain Told Me Food Was the Enemy of Love

    I had to face that my broken relationship with eating ultimately mirrored a broken relationship with myself

    Jun 4 - Katherine J. Chen
    Personal Narrative

    I Had a Neighbor Whose Husband Constantly Shouted

    She moved through her days as though he was background in her story

    May 28 - Neela Vaswani
    Personal Narrative

    A Beloved Teacher’s Casual Homophobia Still Hurts

    I want to believe she wasn’t being cruel, but on some level, she felt this kind of hatred was trivial or acceptable

    May 21 - Hugh Ryan
    Personal Narrative

    The Neighbor Who Stalked Me

    I felt hunted by him, but legally, his routine was treated as a hobby, like birdwatching

    May 14 - Faith Palermo
    Personal Narrative

    I Wasn’t Excited for My Top Surgery. That Doesn’t Negate My Desire for It

    Expansion doesn’t have to be sure or aware of itself

    May 7 - Billy Lezra
    Personal Narrative

    The Decisions Affecting My Body Were Always Made By Someone Else

    I only wanted to be asked how I felt, how I wanted to approach my treatment

    Apr 30 - Aleina Grace Edwards
    Personal Narrative
    Show More

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    Electric Literature is a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 2009. We are invested in pushing traditional publishing boundaries to support emerging and marginalized writers, while ensuring readers can engage with literature regardless of socioeconomic status. We do not impose submission fees or install paywalls, and everything we publish is free to read online.

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