Must Love Memoir is back this Tuesday!
Introducing the January lineup.
Hello dear memoir lovers,
It’s been a minute. First, I just want to say I hope you all had a happy and healthy holiday season.
I’ll admit that I crashed hard after I submitted my final grades at the end of December, which led to a pretty mellow Christmas and New Year’s. The highlight was definitely getting to spend my first major holiday season with Gunther, who couldn’t be bothered with our tree but was pretty obsessed with the gate we put up around it.
Usually, I have a lot of ambition for what I’ll accomplish in the space between semesters — the writing I’ll get done and the overall life adjustments I’ll make, especially around all the resolutions I see other’s posting about.
I’ll confess this time I leaned heavy into resting and not being too hard on myself for taking the time to reset. I hope you did the same, and approached this year in a way that felt good for you.
With that said, I’m keeping this opening letter to the January announcement short. Hope and I look forward to the start of Must Love Memoir’s 2025 season and will be back to regularly posting soon. We have some amazing authors joining us this year, plus a very exciting announcement we can’t wait to share with you.
The season begins this Tuesday, January 21 at Jake’s Dilemma, with this incredible lineup of writers. We hope you’ll brave the freezing temperatures to come out and help us start the year strong!
♥️,
Krystal (and Hope)
January Readers
Katie Bartz is a lighting designer and technician in NYC. Having graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, Katie has a great appreciation for writing, especially new works from fellow artists, and is thrilled to be sharing after years of pursuing other passions.
Elizabeth Austin's writing has appeared in Thrillist, Reactor Mag, Business Insider, and others. She is currently querying her memoir about her daughter's three years in leukemia treatment. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania with her 2 children and their many pets. She writes a weekly newsletter about her family’s post-cancer life on Substack:
. Find her at www.writingelizabeth.com and on Instagram: @writingelizabeth
Krystal Marie Orwig is a writer, editor, cat mom, and the founder and co-host of Must Love Memoir, a New York City reading series dedicated to nonfiction writers. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York where she also teaches English Composition and Creative Writing. Her writing has appeared in Everyday Health. In her free time she’s usually rewatching Gilmore Girls and Friends or finding places to store toilet paper in her New York apartment.
Kori Crosson lives in Brooklyn, where she spends her time playing tennis, biking between neighborhoods, and shopping at the grocery chain named after fruits. She’s a memoir enthusiast and writes non-fiction essays about the people in her life.
Cami Talbot is a professional Makeup Artist by trade with 18 years experience in the beauty industry. Born and raised in Utah, currently living in Williamsburg. She has always been passionate about writing and started publicly sharing and working on multiple manuscripts in 2020. Cami has lived an unconventional life with a passion for learning and her wit would say, she has a phd from The School of Hard-knocks. Finding pleasure and purpose in sharing her heart in word form, hoping to capture the essence of life, hope, love, grief, loss, and curiosity—all with her signature touch, Sensuality. Connecting all of us deeper to our senses and the full body experience that is encapsulated within her words.
Ann Van Epps is a standup comedian and writer. She was published in The Razer Magazine in September and has performed on countless stages including Soho Playhouse and The Fear City Comedy Club. She was also featured in Timeout NY and was a Best of the Fest Comedian at the Burbank Comedy Fest. She is presently working on a book of short humorous stories about her life. See her perform her solo show in early February. Find updates on Instagram and Medium, where she writes frequently. Instagram: @annieinthecity2020 Medium: @annieinthecity.
Special Announcement:
The lovely Rachel Kramer Bussel over at
is organizing an incredible live event on May 3, and trust me, you don’t want to miss thislineup of panelists and speakers!Event info:
This personal storytelling summit from Open Secrets Magazine features over 2 dozen essayists, memoir authors, storytellers, and editors discussing what it means to share your "secrets" with the world via writing. Learn how writers grapple with disclosing personal stories about relationships, family, identity, LGBTQIA life, mental health, and work and career. Keynote speaker Jane Pratt, editor of Another Jane Pratt Thing, and formerly editor of Sassy, Jane, and xoJane, will discuss with Open Secrets Magazine editor Rachel Kramer Bussel the enduring popularity of first person writing and how she approaches editing personal essays.
Sponsored by Narratively and Libro.fm
Books by authors will be for sale by Kew & Willow Books, and you can also purchase books by our speakers on their website.
This event is sure to sell out so get your tickets before it does! Early bird special running until February 1 😊
