Skip to content
Electric Literature Logo
Mobile Menu Close Button
  • essays
  • interviews
  • Reading Lists
  • News
  • Lit Mags
  • Support
  • Store
  • About
  • Log In
  • Cart Created with Sketch.
  • Search Button

Facebook Bluesky Instagram
SEARCH
  • essays
  • interviews
  • Reading Lists
  • News
  • Lit Mags
  • Support
  • Store
  • About
Facebook Bluesky Instagram
Cart Created with Sketch. Search Button
Close Button
SEARCH

essays

  • Personal Narrative
  • Books & Culture
  • Craft
  • Humor
  • Both/And
  • The Power of Touch in High Art

    Does the very idea that a painting or sculpture has come into direct contact with the public, the viewer’s flesh, make it worth less money?

    Oct 29 - DS Waldman
    Personal Narrative

    Fixing Up Our Home Means Making Memories My Husband Might Lose

    I feel I’ve been appointed with the precious task of keeping our history accurate for both of us

    Oct 22 - Josepha Natzke
    Personal Narrative

    What If Breaking Students to Build Them Back Up Only Breaks Them Down?

    I experienced my college essay course not only as a threat to my personal style, but also as a threat to what writing—and writing education—could be

    Oct 15 - Helen Betya Rubinstein
    Personal Narrative

    Where Has My Mother’s Knowledge Gone?

    A specialist in declaring friends’ parents incompetent, trusted lawyer of many, she herself was about to be declared incompetent

    Oct 8 - Marcelo Rubens Paiva
    Personal Narrative

    The Concept of the Asian Robot Maid Has Haunted My Life

    Who is this mechanical maid everyone wants to conjure into existence? What is this job we’re so desperate to give her?

    Oct 1 - Franny Choi
    Personal Narrative

    My Husband Swears Our Baby Is Out To Murder Us

    He's begun to fantasize that our son will wipe my in-laws off the planet

    Sep 24 - Lucy Zhang
    Personal Narrative

    I Lost Myself When I Lost Hong Kong

    If returning to America was like getting on a lifeboat, why did I feel like I was drowning?

    Sep 17 - Tiffany Huang
    Personal Narrative

    My Father Called Me His Problem Child

    If there had once been a rope connecting me to him, at this point in my life it had dwindled down to a thread

    Sep 10 - Hannah Levy
    Personal Narrative

    What If There Is No Master Plan for Your Life?

    I thought I knew the point at which my youth would transform into something else

    Sep 3 - Kira Homsher
    Personal Narrative

    We’ve Inherited a History of Solidarity and Grief

    My girlfriend saw me entering my 20s without a care in the world; at my age she was watching her friends die

    Aug 27 - Hélène Giannecchini
    Personal Narrative

    Aftermath of an Intervention, Part III

    The third installment of Nelly Reifler’s three-part essay about marriage, murder, 9/11, and how she said goodbye to Elliott Smith

    Aug 20 - Nelly Reifler
    Personal Narrative

    Aftermath of an Intervention, Part II

    The second installment of Nelly Reifler’s three-part essay about marriage, murder, 9/11, and how she said goodbye to Elliott Smith

    Aug 13 - Nelly Reifler
    Personal Narrative
    Show More

    DON’T MISS OUT

    Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work.

    YOUR INBOX IS LIT

    Enjoy absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Mondays, strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of the week on Fridays. Personalize your subscription preferences here.

    Thank You!

    Contribute to Electric Lit

    Help keep the lights on.

    Support our mission to make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive.

    Donate
    Electric Literature Logo

    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.

    • Essays
    • About
    • Interviews
    • Membership
    • Reading Lists
    • Donate
    • News
    • Submissions
    • Lit Mags
    • Contact
    • Shop
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Opt-out preferences
    • Advertising
    Facebook Bluesky Instagram

    Site designed in collaboration with CMYK.

    Site designed in collaboration with CMYK.

    Powered by WordPress and hosted by Pressable.

    Facebook Bluesky Instagram
    Manage Consent
    To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
    Functional Always active
    The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
    Preferences
    The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
    Statistics
    The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
    Marketing
    The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
    • Manage options
    • Manage services
    • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
    • Read more about these purposes
    View preferences
    • {title}
    • {title}
    • {title}